Efforts underway to save VSP from getting privatised

Visakhapatnam : The hopes of revival of the Visakhapatnam steel plant have been revived with the arrival of the Union heavy industries and steel minister H D Kumaraswamy in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday evening.

The Union minister had a meeting with the VSP management to understand its present status and the measures that need to be taken to revive the loss making plant.

Though at one point of time it was felt that Centre may merge it with SAIL, it now seems to be exploring another option of linking it with NMDC which is the biggest iron ore mining company. If that happens, the problem of VSP not having captive mines could be solved. It may be recalled that before the recent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the Centre took a decision to put the issue of disinvestment on back burner.

After a thorough discussion with the stakeholders and trade union leaders, Kumaraswamy will submit a comprehensive report to the Union government. As part of the assurance given by the alliance parties before elections, it is learnt that details regarding the plant production, losses and other information will be submitted to the Union government to consider means to pull the plant from incurring losses.

For the past three years, the plant has been producing less than its capacity. Due to inadequate raw material, blast furnace III was closed down at RINL. Also, the plant has been incurring losses to the tune of thousands of crores.

To overcome the mounting losses, the possibility of taking loans from World Bank and Exim Bank is not ruled out. Sources said once the plan to revive the VSP was in place it would take about a year to put it back on track and make it a profitable company.