The making of a Steel City

The inhabitants of a small village Bokaro had never imagined in 1957 that within ten years, their entire life-style would change. The people were taken aback when they one day found some outsiders in their villages with all sorts of tools, making some residential camps and conducting surveys. This continued for some days, and then the ‘outsiders’ returned.

These ‘outsiders’ were government officials who had come to visit the site to find out whether Bokaro was a place suitable enough to house the country’s largest steel plant!

The government in the second five year plan sanctioned Rs3.75 crores to the Ministry Of Iron and Steel to conduct necessary surveys to set up an integrated and advanced Steel Plant, which would not only be a major step towards our country’s self reliance, but also serve as an example for the new plants to come up. It asked the “Hindustan Steel Limited” to conduct surveys for setting up the plant.

The people had almost forgotten that someone had ever come to visit their village, and continued to live a hard life marred by poverty and hunger. Then came the shocker---Two years later, some officials arrived and informed them that the government had decided to set up a steel plant in Bokaro. They were told that their land would be acquired by the government, which was ready to pay a reasonable price for their land and that they would be settled in a place not far from where they lived.

The officials left soon, and later in the year 1959, the process of acquiring the land was started and the number of people displaced totaled to 34786, who were rehabilitated in three neighboring villages-Balidih, Ritudih and Ukrid.

Soon after the rehabilitation was completed, a number of engineers, architects and contractors came to bokaro, and then was drafted the construction plan of the plant and the city. It was decided to quickly train at least one person from each displaced family for the construction work. The displaced were delighted at this decision, because they knew that as soon as the construction would start none of them would have to sleep hungry or would have no work to do. The few who were educated were given technical training, and in 1964 finally the construction work started.

Attempts were made to set up schools in the upcoming city for the education of the children, and finally in the year 1966 St. Xavier’s School was set up on the invitation of the Bokaro Steel Limited to the concerned authorities.

A lot of small contactors flooded the place to try their luck, leaving their families far behind, and worked hard day and night to get the work done on time. They made huge profits and as the residential colonies came up, they brought their families to the ‘Bokaro Steel City’. The work was completed early in the year 1972, and the plant became operational on the 2^nd of October that year. The residential colonies continued to come up.           

            
The plant indeed did not come up as easily as it seems to be. First, the authorities had to face protests from some local groups, and then the government had to scrap a collaboration agreement with the United States of America, and enter into a new agreement with the USSR to set up the plant due to certain stands of the American Government, which were not at all acceptable.

The city was in a lot of limelight due to the big surprise it sprang after the results of the IIT-JEE were announced a few years ago. One of the schools in the city alone accounted for sixty two IITians, and around fifteen more from the other schools made it to various IITs in the country. The city today holds a huge potential to give the country a number of technocrats and professionals. A number of students from various small towns and villages come to Bokaro to pursue High Secondary Education.

            
The city continues to grow, and the river ‘Bokaro’, a small tributary of the river Damodar, after which the city is named, continues to flow, witnessing the changes in the city.

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