
VIJAYAWADA: Union Minister of State for Steel Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma said the Centre announced the Rs 11,440 crore aid package to bail out Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) from the financial crisis, and prevent its privatisation.
However, the Union Minister made it clear that there is no possibility of merging VSP with Steel Authority of India Limited now as the SAIL management wants the merger only after VSP comes out of the red.
Speaking to mediapersons at Bhimavaram in West Godavari district on Thursday, Srinivasa Varma said the Centre has so far extended Rs 13,090 crore financial aid to VSP, and is ready to extend further support. “This is the biggest financial package given by the Centre to an industry in the history of Andhra Pradesh,” he asserted.
Mentioning that the production of VSP is more or less 50% of capacity now, he said efforts will be made to enhance the production by operationalising the steel plant fully.
Besides operating the second blast furnace on a full scale, steps will be taken to operationalise the third blast furnace by the end of August, and ensure the full-pledged functioning of VSP thereby bringing it into profits, the Union Minister explained. On the criticism of the opposition parties that the aid package announced by the Centre was meagre, and could not prevent VSP from privatisation, he termed it irresponsible.
Observing that there is no logic in the argument that lack of captive iron ore mines is the reason for the losses of VSP, he said the steel plant ran in profits in the past.
Similarly, steel plants like Jindal and JSW are running in profits though they do not have captive mines, he said.