Tata Sons’ chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran arrived in the city established by Tata Group founder J.N. Tata and inaugurated a slew of facilities on Wednesday.

The chairman, who has been attending the functions on March 3 in Jamshedpur held to mark the birth anniversary of group founder, inaugurated an Integrated Sinter Plant Operation Centre (i-SPOC) at Information Technology & System (ITS) Building inside Tata Steel’s work.

“Tata Steel in its endeavour to become a benchmark leader in Industry 4.0, has created the path breaking entity by setting up i-SPOC. The three current operating sinter plant units have been merged into a far-site single operation control centre, about 6km from the plant. The i-SPOC reflects a paradigm shift in operation and control of sinter plants and uses high definition video displays, advanced machine learning models, robust voice communication network to monitor and control the sintering operations,” said a Tata Steel spokesperson.

The spokesperson claimed that the endeavour, a first of its kind for any Indian Sinter Plant operation, demonstrates a shift from conventional mindset in enhancing the existing process efficiency, improved synergy and agile decision-making.

Chandrasekaran virtually inaugurated a ‘remote trial of first equipment of Pellet Plant and Cold Rolling Mill (CRM) at Tata Steel Kalinganagar in Odisha at the Virtual Reality Room, Engineering & Projects (E & P) Building at Jamshedpur Works.

From the E&P Building, Chandrasekaran initiated the ground-breaking and first panel erection of solar power projects at Central Warehouse and Cold Rolling Mill at Jamshedpur works.

“These are part of a larger project for solar power at Tata Steel Jamshedpur (TSJ) and Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK), comprising ground mounted, roof-top and floating solar panels. The total capacity for TSK, TSJ and installations at Sonari airport and Domjuri at Jamshedpur is 56MW. This project is a joint effort between Tata Steel and Tata Power towards creating a ‘Greener Tomorrow’,” the spokesperson said.

The chairman also initiated the first equipment trials for the upcoming Cold Rolling Mill and Pellet Plant projects at Tata Steel Kalinganagar through the digital twin interface. This signifies completion of a major milestone for the Kalinganagar expansion project from 3 to 8 million tonnes per annum.

The chairman also inaugurated a fitness avenue along Kadma-Sonari Link Road, a perfect gift for the Jamshedpur residents. Fitness Avenue has an Open Gym facility with 20 equipment, app-based cycle stand, public amenities etc.

Later in the evening, Chandrasekaran also lit the illumination at the Jubilee Park.

The founder’s day celebration inside Tata Steel works in Jamshedpur wherein group companies pay floral tributes at the statue of J. N Tata would be live streamed for employees along with broadcasting on Facebook live on Tata Steel official handle on Thursday which would also be attended by the chairman.