Tata Steel plans to use the robots on a large scale in its steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Odisha's Jajpur. It also plans to run the plant even sitting in a remote part of the country.

Addressing the 11th edition of the Steel Markets Conference here, Rajiv Kumar, vice-president, operations, Tata Steel project at Kalinganagar, said: “Tata Steel facility is extensively implementing robotics, data, and vision analytics to improve safety and productivity. It plans to open a Robert Management Department that will deal with robots only.”

Stating that Tata Steel has recently commissioned India's largest blast furnace at its Kalinga Nagar facility, Rajiv Kumar said: “When we started work in 2004 things were different. And now in 2024, there has been a complete change in the scenario of technology intervention in steel making. We need to take advantage of technology. We will go for steel making on the caster floor even without the presence of a single person on that floor. We put priority on the safety of our persons.”

He also unveiled Tata’s Plan how to use solar energy extensively in its steel plants across the country.

This two-day conference is being organised in Bhubaneswar for the first time. The theme of this year’s conference is “Connecting the Dots for a Sustainable Future,” with special focus on Iron ore, Pellets, Scrap and DRI sectors.

General manager (sales and marketing), Odisha Mining Corporation Limited OMC Ltd Vivek Nishant Nath said: “Odisha Mining Corp has emerged as the biggest iron ore dispatching company in the country surpassing NMDC Ltd as of now, supplying 23 million tons till September of the current financial year. OMC is planning to dispatch more than 40 million tonnes in 2025 financial year.”