NMDC Commissions Rs 5,427 Crore Bastar Iron Ore Project

The correct answer is Rs 5,427 crore. NMDC has commissioned a 2 MTPA pellet plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh, and this plant forms the last element of an integrated venture of that value. The venture bundles together three works: a fresh iron ore processing plant at Bacheli, a slurry pipeline rated at 15 MTPA, and the pellet plant at Nagarnar. Together they connect the mining operations at Bacheli with the steel plant that the company runs at Nagarnar. Option A, Rs 3,215 crore, is wrong because it understates the outlay; no figure of that size is attached to this work. Option C, Rs 7,640 crore, is wrong for the opposite reason, since the announced value is well below it. Option D, Rs 9,180 crore, is wrong as well and is far above the amount involved. Aspirants should note that the pipeline covers 135 km, passes through 61 villages of the Bastar and Dantewada districts, and gives an alternative to carrying processed ore by road.

The correct answer is Nagarnar, 135 km. The pipeline takes processed iron ore concentrate from Bacheli and delivers it at Nagarnar, where the company operates its steel plant, and it is rated to move 15 MTPA. Its purpose is to provide a route other than the road for moving the material, and it also lowers dependence on the railways for evacuation. On the way it passes through 61 villages spread across the Bastar and Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh. Option A is wrong because the line does not terminate at Raipur, and no length of 210 km is involved. Option B is wrong because the destination is inside Chhattisgarh and not a coastal port, and the distance named is far too long. Option D is wrong because Jagdalpur is not given as the end point of the line, and 96 km does not match the stated length. The correct pairing to memorise is Bacheli to Nagarnar over 135 km.

The correct answer is Straight Grate Induration. This is the technology on which the pellet plant at Nagarnar operates, producing pellets that go into steelmaking. The plant has a capacity of 2 MTPA and works on concentrate prepared from fines and slimes raised at the Bailadila mines, so material that was earlier hard to use is turned into a value-added product. Option A, the Grate Kiln process, is another pelletising route used in the industry, but it is not the one named for this plant. Option C, the Corex process, is wrong because Corex is a smelting reduction route for making hot metal and has nothing to do with pelletising. Option D, the Rotary Hearth Furnace, is wrong because that equipment is associated with direct reduction and waste recycling rather than with induration of pellets here. Candidates should also link the plant with the wider aim of NMDC to reach an iron ore production capacity of 100 million tonnes.

The correct answer is Amitava Mukherjee, who holds the post of Chairman and Managing Director at NMDC Ltd. Poor weather prevented him and the senior leadership from travelling to the project site, so the first production run of the pellet plant was watched live from the headquarters of the company instead. He called the day one of great pride and acknowledged that carrying out the work, which involved the processing facilities, the slurry pipeline and the pellet plant together, had been difficult. Options A, C and D name other individuals and none of them is identified with this announcement, so each is wrong. For the examination the useful pairing is the officer, Amitava Mukherjee, with the event, the commissioning of the 2 MTPA pellet plant at Nagarnar that completes a Rs 5,427 crore integrated project in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, under the Ministry of Steel.