RAIPUR: The SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh is going to add another feather in its cap by its valuable contribution to another major defence project - indigenous submarine for the Indian Navy.

BSP has almost completed the work on the development of a testing facility for the manufacturing of steel to be used in the making of the nation’s first indigenous submarine, BSP sources said.

However, the manufacturing of the plates will be done only after the testing and inspection by the teams of the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and the Indian Navy. The testing this time will be ten times more than the testing done during the production of steel for INS Vikrant, they said.

The schedule of the visit of DMRL and Indian Navy teams has not yet been finalised. "We are in constant touch with the DMRL and Indian Navy on the visit schedule. Yes, we have started the process for developing plates of the same grade, which was used in the INS Vikrant aircraft carrier, for the submarine project", sources said refusing to divulge anything further details.

Besides, BSP Bhilai has supplied materials for Chandrayaan-II which is in the making and Gaganyaan project. BSP’s contribution to INS Kamorta, Dhanush Howitzers and Arjun MBTs has been crucial, a top BSP official said.

The government of India has set in motion a process for indigenously developing the first three nuclear submarines. It will be having 95 per cent 'Made in India' content in them and it would further go up in the next three.