BHUBANESWAR : Employees of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) on Sunday urged the Centre to reconsider its decision to disinvest its equity in the joint venture company. Claiming that NINL, a joint venture of the Central and State governments, is making operational profit, general secretary of Neelachal Executive Association Ajit Pradhan said the Centre should consider for its merge with SAIL or Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited.
Though NINL has been making loss since 2012-13, the company has no non-performing assets (NPA) like many other Central PUSs. “Even reputed private steel companies have NPA with aggregated debt to the tune of `1.48 crore. We are confident that NINL will make profit if there will be fresh infusion of funds for operating mines and optimal utilisation of plant with product mix,” Pradhan said.
He said NINL has 1200 acre of land at Kalinga Nagar for its expansion up to 10 million tonne per annum (MTPA) capacity. The captive mines of the plant has a reserve of 110 million tonnes for expansion. The Union Cabinet in January decided to divest the equity of NINL to a strategic buyer which will bring in investment and new technology for growth of the company. Former Union Minister Srikant Jena alleged that the decision to disinvest NINL is part of a conspiracy by the Centre and the State Government to hand it over to some industrialists.