Bokaro Steel Plant’s newly appointed director in charge Amarendu Prakash on Tuesday held a Facebook Live session to speak to the company’s 11,000 employees and officials, where he underscored the importance of focusing on three areas: health and safety, quality and cost reduction.

Several residents, union leaders, politicians and others also watched Prakash speak during the session which was his first interaction as the director in charge of the company.

“I need 100 per cent (focus on) health and safety, 100 per cent (effort put into) quality and 100 per cent (attention on) cost reduction,” said Prakash, underscoring the fact that he was relying on his experience of 24 years of working at the company while giving the advice.

In a speech that lasted 40 minutes, he spoke about the problems he had faced on the floor, which may be similar to those being faced by current employees.

“If each one of us, whether we are deployed in a plant or outside, makes a vow to ourselves that we will not compromise with quality and follow it sincerely, we will achieve the maximum output. This will also bring you appreciation,” said Prakash.

He said that while it was important to focus on quality, health and safety should be prioritised.

Prakash stressed that health and safety of the employees were important and he wanted everyone to achieve 100 per cent in the area.

As an officer who worked for several years in the hot strip mill (HSM) of the plant, Prakash stressed on improving the quality of the product as the second important task.

Last year, SAIL achieved the distinction of being the largest steel producer in the country, ahead of Tata Steel and JSW. But SAIL’s production was only 80 per cent of its capacity.

“SAIL, which has a capacity to produce 20 MTPA crude steel, produced only 16 MTPA. What if it could have achieved 100 per cent production?” he asked.

BSL has a production capacity of 4.8 MTPA, Prakash said. He pointed out that BSL’s production currently remains the same as it was 10 years ago. He asked employees to think about why despite investments, the company was failing to increase the production.

Prakash added that cost reduction could be achieved by proper utilisation of resources and preventing wastage.