Unnamed Steel Mill – Bihar, India

For the final entry on this list, we once again leave the Rust Belt, this time heading for the Bihta township of Bihar in northern India. Unlike the case in the Rust Belt, steel production is still a very large industry in India. In 2011, Indian company Tata Steel was ranked as the 12th largest steel producer in the world.

Steel production in India goes back to the early 1900s, when the Tata Iron and Steel Company (now Tata Steel) established itself in the country. As early as 1939, the company had the biggest steel plant in the whole of the British Empire.

Given that the steel industry is still going strong in this part of the world, we’re not sure why this particular plant was closed. According to photographer Nimish Jain, there may be plans in place to repurpose it as a locomotive depot.

During the 1960s, mills in India produced steel for a variety of industries, including those involved in defense, nuclear energy and space travel. Since then, there have been various modernization programs to bring the Indian steel industry up to the level it is at today.