Bokaro Steel

Bokaro Steel City grew directly out of the decision to build the Bokaro Steel Plant, one of India’s largest public sector steel projects. In the early 1960s, the Government of India chose the Bokaro region in undivided Bihar (now Jharkhand) for a modern integrated steel plant to support rapid industrialisation. In 1964, construction of the plant began with substantial technical collaboration from the Soviet Union. Around the massive project site, a planned township was laid out with sectors, straight roads, green belts, schools, hospitals and markets, giving birth to what is now known as Bokaro Steel City.

The first blast furnaces and rolling mills came on stream in the 1970s, and Bokaro soon became a key unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The city’s population grew as engineers, workers and their families arrived from different parts of India, creating a cosmopolitan workforce town in the heart of the Chotanagpur plateau. Over time, Bokaro developed strong educational institutions, shopping areas and cultural facilities, while the plant continued to expand and modernise its capacity. Today, “Bokaro Steel” signifies both the giant steel complex—central to India’s public sector industrial history—and the surrounding planned city that grew entirely because of it.