Visakhapatnam: The Central government recently poured life into Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) which is on a ventilator mode by infusing a special revival plan package of Rs 11,440 crore. Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan have made relentless efforts in allocating such a huge amount of funds to the VSP, which is not even able to pay salaries to its employees for the past four months. Apparently, the revival plan also indicates that the privatisation of the VSP halts temporarily.
Keeping their promise, Union Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu and Union Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy made earnest efforts to save the VSP. Even as the revival plan package has been supported by the Centre, now the responsibility lies on the employees and the VSP management to steer the plant towards a profitable track.
By making efficient use of the package funds and performing duties beyond their capacity, the employees should strive towards making the VSP profitable.
According to the ministers and public representatives, such a hefty revival plan has never been allocated to any PSU earlier. If the industry is not driven forward efficiently, the funds supported by the Centre will evaporate and, in another year, or two it will come back to its present state.
While the trade union leaders welcomed the package given by the Central government, they also demanded the Centre to merge the VSP with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) as they opined that the merger is the only permanent solution for the plant to gain its lost glory. “As of now, it is technically not possible to merge the VSP with SAIL. First of all, efforts should be taken to make the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant financially sustainable. The current management has completely failed in this regard,” said Sagi Kasi Vishwanatha Raju, former independent director of SAIL.
