Telangana State stays away from Vizag Steel Plant bidding

Hyderabad: After the much hype that was created in political circles for the past few days regarding investing Rs 5,000 crore in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant by Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), the state government is understood to have taken a U-turn and may not participate in the bidding.

It may be mentioned here that an official delegation from the SCCL had visited the plant and studied the feasibility of the investments in the plant. Sources said that the SCCL delegation had given a report to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao stating that no decision should be taken in a hurry as it involves huge investment.

The SCCL, further is learnt, to have said that the issue requires greater and in-depth study on the viability of the plant and whether the employees of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) will cooperate or not before a decision was taken. They felt that the company was facing several challenges and required huge capital investment to run the plant.

In the backdrop of this, top officials said that the government was not in a mood to go in for bidding in a hurry and make such a huge financial commitment. It also felt that to run the plant without any hurdles the support from the workers of VSP was necessary.

This is one issue which needs to be examined thoroughly before investing money, sources said. Though Saturday was the last date for filing the bid, the VSP had extended the date up to April 20 to attract more bids. Whether the TS government reconsiders its decision or not is to be watched.