RAS question
The Bhilai Steel Plant (Chhattisgarh) was established with the help of:
Correct answer: (B) USSR (Soviet Union).
The Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh was established with assistance from the former USSR.
Explanation
Bhilai Steel Plant is an Indo-Soviet landmark in India’s planned industrialisation. The official SAIL page identifies BSP as a flagship unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited, located at Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, and states that it was established in 1955 with assistance from the former USSR and commissioned in 1959. This fits the standard RAS mapping for Second Five Year Plan heavy-industry projects: Bhilai is linked with Soviet assistance, while Rourkela is linked with Indo-German collaboration and Durgapur with Indo-British collaboration. The question is therefore testing not just a plant name, but the larger pattern of public-sector steel expansion in the planned economy era.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Japan is not the collaboration associated with Bhilai; Bhilai is a Soviet-assisted plant.
- (C) The United Kingdom is linked with Durgapur, not with Bhilai Steel Plant.
- (D) Germany is linked with Rourkela, whereas Bhilai is Soviet-assisted.
Concept
This tests the geography of Indian industries, especially the location-collaboration pattern of major public-sector steel plants. It recurs in RAS because steel plants connect industrial location, Five Year Plans and post-Independence regional development.