Vizag steel plant, a saga of steely grit, struggle and sacrifice

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has a lengthy saga of struggle and sacrifices. It was a folks’s motion in then mixed Andhra Pradesh, through which college students from Andhra Medical College, Andhra University, Ms. AVN College and many different schools from Guntur, Krishna, Warangal and East Godavari districts, had participated. They had been led by stalwarts corresponding to Tenneti Viswanadham, Gouthu Latchanna, Puchalapalli Sundarayya, Chandra Rajeswara Rao, Nallamalla Giriprasad Rao, T. Nagi Reddy and Vavilala Gopalakrishnaiah.

The motion for a shore-based steel plant in Visakhapatnam started with C. Subramaniam asserting that a steel plant can be arrange within the metropolis in 1963. In 1965, the Centre requested the Anglo American Consortium to indetify a appropriate location . A report was tabled in Parliament on July 3, 1965, citing Visakhapatnam as a possible location. On July 1, 1966, the State Assembly, then led by Chief Minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, unanimously handed a decision favouring the plant in Visakhapatnam.

But, the mission went into a limbo thereafter. It once more gained momentum, when Amruta Rao from Guntur, sat on an indefinite quick on the District Collector’s workplace, on October 15, 1966. “For about three days, nobody noticed Mr. Amruta Rao. There was a small report about his fast in a local Telugu newspaper. We learnt from him the relevance of the plant ,” recollects Kolla Rajmohan, who was then the final secretary of college students union of Andhra Medical College.

On October 22, the scholars held a public assembly and took out a rally. Two days later, an all-party committee was fashioned to champion the trigger, adopted by an impartial strike and ‘hartal’ known as by college students. “On October 29, 1966, we organised a ‘rail roko’ and the Calcutta-Madras Mail was held for hours at Gopalapatnam. We received spontaneous support from all colleges across the State and it was followed by a general strike on October 30,” recollects Dr. Rajmohan.

32 die in police motion

November 1 was the day, when the historical past of the VSP was written in blood. In an effort to quell the agitation, the police opened fireplace on the protesters close to the Old Post Office within the Old Town space, killing 12 folks. “All the bullet wounds of the deceased were on their chests.More than 100 protesters suffered bullet and lathi injuries,” says Ch. Narasinga Rao, State secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

Within the following few days, 20 extra protesters had been killed, together with 5 in Vijaywada and 5 in Guntur, two in Vizianagaram, one in Kakinada, one in Warangal, one in Rajahmundry, one in Sileru, one in Palasa, one in Jagtial and two in different areas.

This gave the agitation nationwide and worldwide recognition and it was solely on April 10, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi introduced in Parliament that a steel plant can be arrange in Visakhapatnam. She additionally laid the muse stone on January 20, 1971.

Land acquisition

After a lot ups and downs and buying about 22,000 acres of land in 68 villages, the primary blast furnace Godavari was devoted to the nation by the then Prime Minister V.P. Singh, on March 20, 1990. On August 1, 1992, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, with 3 million tonne capability, was devoted to the Nation by the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. In 2006, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the muse stone for its enlargement mission from 3.2 MT to six.3 MT.

All the three Prime Ministers, of their speechs, had described the VSP as pleasure of the State, town and the nation.

The VSP had gone into manufacturing in 1991 and until 2000, it gathered losses to the tune of about ₹4,000 crore. In 2,000, it was referred to the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), however after a lot stress, it was given a restructuring package deal of ₹1,333 crore.

Members of Steel Executive Association (SEA) says that the unique estimate was ₹1,900 crore, however by the point it had gone into manufacturing and on account of delay in development of about 25 years, the associated fee had gone over ₹8,000 crore.

The authorities had given solely ₹4,986 crore and the stability was raised by the VSP from the market. Between 2001 to 2016, the palnt earned earnings and went into losses once more from 2016, on account of a quantity of elements.

‘Heavy interest on loans’

The VSP has to this point paid curiosity on loans of about ₹18,000 crore. It has gathered losses of ₹12, 973 crore and earnings of ₹18,069 crore. Heavy curiosity on loans and lack of captive mines have been the primary causes for its losses, says members of the SEA.

“If mines are given, the cost of raw material will drop by ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 per tonne and we can bounce back. This plant is emotionally rooted to the people and the Union government should revisit the proposal to privatise it,” they are saying.