BSL Steel Plant Shuts Down Completely: 5,000 Workers Trapped Amid Ongoing Protest

In an unprecedented industrial emergency, the Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) has come to a standstill with a total shutdown of production an industrial first in Asia’s largest steel plant (by area) and a major unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). All five of its blast furnaces have been taken offline since Friday, an unprecedented shutdown for the plant since it was built in the early 1970s.

The crisis erupted after protesters sealed off all seven entry and exit points of the complex on Thursday afternoon, effectively trapping more than 5,000 workers who had reported in for their B-shift. The staff has been trapped for over 30 hours, producing a grave humanitarian condition set against huge industrial disruption.

The shutdown cost the Maharatna PSU at least 13,400 tonnes of hot metal production in 24 hours, severely denting its finances. All critical units including the coke oven, sinter plant, steel melting shop and hot strip mill are offline.

And veteran plant hands confirmed that no full shutdown had ever taken place, even during the COVID-19 lockdowns: only a 50 percent scale-back. The stakes currently are much higher, where critical risks now loom around plant integrity and industrial safety.

Even more urgent, said BSL’s Chief of Communications Manikant Dhan, are safety concerns: “Our thermo-sensitive operations and extensive gas pipeline network need to be monitored 24-7. The extended shutdown is threatening our capacity to maintain essential safety requirements.”

The CISF has undertaken this initiative and efforts are on to provide essentials to the trapped workers. Workers inside are keeping discipline and morale, relying on internal communications and messages from colleagues outside to stay in sync.

The chairman of SAIL Amarendu Prakash is monitoring the situation closely, while the executive directors of BSL are dealing with the crisis at hand in the absence of the Director-in-Charge Birendra Kumar Tiwary who is in Delhi. The Union Steel Ministry has also been informed.

Industry experts warn that the incident could have wider ramifications for India’s steel production capacity and raise serious questions over existing industrial security norms.