Durgapur has a whole gamut of manufacturing industries. Among them, Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) and Alloy Steel Plant (ASP) are the 2 biggest and the ones around which the city and the other industries came up. Both operate under the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) . DSP, with about 30,000 employees, is an integrated steel plant with 4 blast furnaces, producing about 1 million tonnes annually of pig iron and ingots. It is also the only steel plant in India manufacturing railway wheels. ASP (where my dad worked), with about 7000 employees, is an alloy and special steels plant. It was the only one of its kind in the country until the mid-80's when another one came up in Salem, Kerala. Its main raw material is ferrous scrap, mostly from junked cars from the United States. Its rated capacity is about 0.3 million tonnes per annum. It produces only on order, moslty for the defence, space and other special needs industries. DSP and ASP share a common township for its employees (about 10kmx10km). It has a whole lot of schools run by the company, an 800 bed hospital for the employees and their families and other sports and recreational facilities.

The Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation (MAMC), Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL), Durgapur Chemicals Limited (DCL), Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Limited (BOGL), Phillips Carbon Black Limited (PCBL), ACC Babcock Limited (ABL), Durgapur Thermal Power Station (DTPS), etc. Of them, DPL and DTPS are Durgapur's main source of power. DTPS is in fact a part of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), which is a string of 5 dams and 2 power plants located along the river Damodar. They were built to tame the mighty river, once known as the "river of sorrow", for the havoc it created during the floods in the rainy season. BOGL is the only public sector company in the country which manufactures glass for prescription lenses.