Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Plant back on revival path
31 Jul 2024
Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISP), which the government put up for sale in October 2016, is now on the revival path with 130000 tonnes of steel production in the 2023-24 financial year.
VISP, with an employee strength of 245 and various finishing facilities such as mills and forge shop in operation, produces saleable steel using semi-finished steel supplied by sister units of SAIL.
The government had, in October 2026, accorded ‘in principle’ approval for strategic disinvestment of VISP. However, as selected bidders failed to participate in further transactions in the divestment process, government decided to annul the Expression of Interest (EoI).
Subsequently, the government had directed the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to initiate the process for closure of Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Plant, Bhadravati.
Minister of state for steel and heavy industries, Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma gave this information in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Further, Raju said since steel being a de-regulated sector, no subsidy can be given to steelmakers. The government, however, has been taking various measures to create conditions conducive to the growth of steel industries, including through ‘Make in India’ initiative.
At present, the government accords priority for domestically manufactured steel for state procurement.
The government has launched a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to promote local production of specialty steel. The PLI scheme is expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs25,000 crore and result in additional capacity creation of 25 million tonnes.
The PLI scheme along with PM Gati-shati National Mission Plan will, in turn, augment steel consumption by major users such as railways, defence, petroleum, housing, civil aviation,
The minister said the policy of strategic divestment / privatisation of public sector industries is based on economic priorities of leaving investment and production to competitive markets where economic potential of such entities may be better discovered by various factors such as infusion of capital, technologic upgradation and efficient management practices.
