No proposal to shut down or privatise VISL: Steel minister

Union Minister for Steel Birender Singh on Wednesday assured a delegation of workers from Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant at Bhadravathi in Shivamogga district that there is no proposal before the Centre either to close down the factory or privatise it.

After receiving a memorandum from the leaders of Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant Workers’ Association here, the minister promised that the government will study all options on how to revive the public sector undertaking.

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar, Shivamogga MP and state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa, Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi and others were present during the meeting.

“The minister promised us that there is no proposal before the government to privatise or shutdown VISL,” Joshi told Deccan Herald after the meeting.

The Association, in its memorandum, stated that the VISL would soon get iron ore mines as the Karnataka government has recently agreed to reserve 156.10 hectares of ore-bearing area in Ramadurga region of Ballari district. Once the plant gets the mines, the supply of raw material would not be a problem.

After taking over the unit in 1998, the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) invested only Rs 300 crore over the years and the plant has not been modernised. At present, only 350 non-executives, 135 executives and 1,600 contract employees are working at the VISL.

Despite all constraints, the VSIL is achieving more production and better productivity through various cost-saving measures. The losses have also come down in the past two-three years, the memorandum said.

Any move by the government to privatise the plant would have several implications as Bhadravati town is entirely dependent on the factory, the memorandum said. The association also demanded that the minister ensure that SAIL puts in more funds and technology to revive the plant.