An era of growth

The value of Dorabji’s Expansion Programme came to be appreciated only during the phase when world was reeling under the pressure of the Great Depression. The Tatas survived the depression and supplied nearly three-fourths of the country’s steel requirements. By the Second World War, Tatas’ production capacities had expanded enough to make their prices lower than those of steel produced in England raising them to an authoritarian position. Armoured cars fitted with bulletproof armour plates and rivets called ‘Tatanagars’, manufactured by Tata Steel were popular and purposeful and made the Company proud.

Post-Independence the Tatas decided to set on the Herculean task of nation building. The much-required steel for the newly devised Five-year Plans came from the Tata factories. The company undertook the Howrah Bridge in Calcutta, the Bhakra-Nangal project and the Damodar Valley Corporation, the port at Kandla, the city of Chandigarh and many more important projects.