With Mandya MP and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy becoming union minister for steel and heavy industries, workers of the beleaguered Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Plant (VISP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) at Bhadravathi in the district, are seeing a new ray of hope.
The Centre had included the plant in the list of disinvestment. An international tender was floated seeking for private entrepreneurs to take over the plant.
As the response was poor, it became part of SAIL again.There were reports that SAIL had taken a decision to close down the unit, citing losses.
They are hopeful that Kumaraswamy will take steps towards rejuvenating the plant, which has been crying for attention for more than a decade.
Gowda’s role
Sources in VISP said former prime minister H D Deve Gowda was instrumental in bringing VISP, which was once managed by the state government, under the purview of SAIL. They said Kumaraswamy too was aware of the issues faced by VISP.
They hope VISP will get more orders from sister plants of SAIL in various parts of the country, for converting intermediate products into finished products. This would keep the plant alive and generate employment for the 246 permanent staff and 1,250 contract workers at present.
More orders
VISP public relations officer L Praveen Kumar told DH, “We hope SAIL will grow under the leadership of Kumaraswamy. Presently, we are getting semi-finished products from other plants of SAIL and our staff are turning out finished products. Earlier, we were getting raw material for the production of steel products. After mining was stopped at Kemmannugundi in Chikkamagaluru district, we faced shortage of raw material.”
On VISP’s future, he said the steel minister would take a call on making capital investment in various plants of SAIL.
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh national secretary Surendran told DH, “We welcome Kumaraswamy’s appointment as steel minister.”
Many setbacks
VISP, a symbol of early industrialisation of Karnataka with a history of 106 years, faced many setbacks in the last one decade.
Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar of the princely state of Mysore had set up the unit in 1923, as per the advice of Sir M Visvesvaraya, who was the dewan of the kingdom.
Sources in VISP said the blast furnace, which plays a a key role in the production of steel from iron oxides, stopped functioning in 2017. Huge funds are required to repair it.
Even if the plant initiates mining activities on 50 acres in block 13/1 of Ramanadurga range in Sandur taluk of Ballari district after completing the forest compensatory land process, it is essential for the blast furnace to be up and running.