By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 30, 2017: THE Government has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for strategic disinvestment of only three units of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) i.e. Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISP), Bhadravati, Salem Steel Plant (SSP), Tamil Nadu and Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur. These three units of SAIL have been consistently making losses. The entire process of the strategic disinvestment would be carried out with the help of a Transaction Adviser (TA), a Legal Adviser (LA) and an Asset Valuer (AV).  The Request for Proposal (RFP) for appointment of TA, LA and AV have been uploaded on SAIL website.

Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur has been consistently making losses for last 5 years. Despite investment of around Rs.400 crores, VISP is making losses for last 10 years. Similarly, despite investment of around Rs.2200 crore under modernisation and expansion, SSP is making losses for last 5 years.

A major modernisation and expansion programme has been carried out simultaneously at all the five major plants viz. Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur & Burnpur and special steel plant at Salem. The Expansion Plan, besides capacity enhancement from 12.8 Mtpa to 21.4 Mtpa of crude steel, adequately addresses the need of SAIL Plants towards eliminating technological obsolescence leading to improvement in operational efficiency.  Under the Modernization & Expansion, SAIL has installed latest state-of-the-art technologies like 7m tall Coke Oven Batteries with coke dry quenching, high volume (more than 4000 m3) Blast Furnaces with Top Pressure Recovery turbines, auxiliary fuel injection & Cast House slag granulation plants, Steel Melting Shops with latest steel making, refining and casting technology and state-of-the-art rolling mills viz. coupled Pickling and Tandem mill for cold rolled products, Universal Rail Mill for longer rails (upto 260 m), 4.3m wide Plate Mill etc. The cumulative expenditure incurred till February, 2017 is Rs. 64,986 crore towards Modernisation & Expansion, Mines and related sustenance schemes.
 
This information was provided by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel, Mr Vishnu Deo Sai in reply to questions in Rajya Sabha yesterday.