Amaravati: Cement cos agree to CM's request to lower price

Amaravati: The cement companies on Monday expressed willingness to reduce the prices of cement to be supplied to the government works. The cement companies promptly responded to the appeal made by the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and lowered the cement price.

The companies agreed in principle to provide each cement bag at Rs 235 for the government works, while the price in open market is Rs 380 a bag.

The Chief Minister said the government required a large quantity of cement for the construction of houses for the poor and irrigation projects, including the Polavaram He told the managements of the cement companies, in an interaction with them at his camp office in Tadepalli in Guntur district that there was a need to cut down the price of cement.

The PPC has been priced at Rs 225 while ordinary cement at Rs 235. These prices are lowest when compared with their price between 2015–16 and 2019–20. The price of cement in the market is Rs. 380. The State government officials informed the company's representatives about the required cement for this year. The estimated requirement of cement for the Department of Housing is 40 lakh metric tonnes, Panchayati Raj Department 25 lakh metric tonnes, Water Resources Department 16.57 lakh metric tonnes and Municipal Department 14.93 metric tonnes respectively.

The Chief Minister is determined to go ahead with construction of houses for the poor. He told the representatives of the cement companies that the government would build 26.6 lakh houses for the poor.

Representatives of the cement companies promised that there will be no problems for the supply of cement for various government works and Polavaram project, besides the construction of houses for the poor. Those present at the meeting are the representatives of Zuari Cement, Bhavya, Sagar, KCP, Rain, Bharti, UltraTech, JSW, Sri Chakra, India, My Home, Rancho, Penna, Dalmia, Aditya Birla, Chettinad, Paranya, Parasakthi and NCL and others.