HYDERABAD: Over eight years after the Centre’s assurance in the AP Reorganisation Act-2014, blame game over setting up the Bayyaram steel plant continues. Replying to an RTI query, the Ministry of Steel has said that though the Centre urged the Telangana government to take decisions on land allotment, incentives, tax concessions and railway linkage, the State did not take any decision in the last three-and-a-half years.
“From 2019 till date, the Steel Ministry wrote six letters urging the State government to finalise the land and others. However, there is no response from the TS government,” said RTI activist Inaganti Ravikumar, who got the reply from the Centre.
According to Ravikumar, the Ministry appointed MECON, a public sector undertaking, to prepare the detailed project report (DPR) for the Bayyaram steel factory. The Ministry asked the State government to identify land for the factory for preparing the DPR.
Interestingly, in one of the meetings convened by the Steel Ministry, the TS representative informed the Centre that Telangana was examining a parcel of land in Mahabubnagar close to its border with Karnataka. Though the TS official informed the Centre in 2019 that the land would be finalised soon, there has been no action so far.The Ministry even said that they did not receive any letter from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on the proposed steel factory in Bayyaram, Ravikumar said.
Based on various reports, the Ministry of Steel at one point of time decided to enhance the capacity of the sponge iron factory located at Palvancha and operated by NMDC up to 1.5 tonnes per annum.