SAIL Launched a Mid-Day Meal Project to Facilitate Students from 431 Schools

The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has launched a unique project that would facilitate mid-day meal to over 57,000 students from schools located in and around Rourkela.  Under this project, the SAIL will make an investment of Rs 8.24 crore to provide healthy yet nutritious mid-day meal to school children.

As informed by a senior RSP official, the Project Akshaya Patra is a noble CSR initiative covering 431 schools in Odisha. On 23 February, in presence of SAIL Chairman C S Verma, RSP's CEO G S Prasad and a host of dignitaries, the state chief minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated the project to the people of the region.  

The SAIL, RSP has joined hands with the Odisha government and the Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO, to implement this project.  

A first-of-its-kind in Odisha, the project is the largest such set up in SAIL, giving new dimension to the CSR activities of this region," revealed the steel plant official.

The project is unique in terms of its state-of-the art facilities such as a modern centralized kitchen that includes boilers, a rice cleaning machine, a cold storage, tailor made utensils, conveyor belts and packing and cleaning facilities. Apart from this, 20 customized vehicles have been provided to carry cooked food from the centralized kitchen to 431 schools located in Lathikata and Bisra blocks as well as Rourkela municipality area.

Besides a capital investment of Rs 8.24 crore, the Steel Plant will also offer about Rs 2.6 crores per annum for operational support, and the remaining expenditure will be borne by Odisha government and Akshaya Patra Foundation.