Visakhapatnam: Some 28 companies offered their bids to fund Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, the corporate entity of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The last date for submission of Expression of Interests (EOIs) ended on Thursday.
Of the six applications received in the last lot, one was from the UAE. In the earlier phase, 22 applications were received, of which six were foreign companies.
Singareni Collieries Ltd of the Telangana government, which caused a political flutter in the state by sending a team to visit the steel plant last week and announcing that it would submit an EOI, did not submit the papers.
A trade union leader said Singareni in the past quoted Rs 6,500 per tonne of coal when RINL sourced it from Mahanadi Coal Fields for Rs 4,000. RINL appointed a standing committee to evaluate the offers.
The heads of marketing, finance, works, material management will form part of the standing committee. The process of evaluation will begin from Friday, sources said.
Trade union leaders fighting against the central government move to privatise the plant were upset as the steel ministry did not allow SAIL or NMDC, which belonged to the ministry, to file the bid.
The RINL management invited EOI to collect an advance in the form of iron ore, coal or capital from the market to sell the steel.
Senior leader Ayodhyaramu said the third blast furnace, which has a capacity to produce 25 lakh tonnes of steel per month, was closed 15 months ago, bringing down the production from 7.5 million tonnes to 4.5 million tonnes.
He said if the government funded Rs 3,000 crore, the resumption of the third blast furnace would lead to a turnover over Rs 34,000 crore per year.
Another leader Varasala Srinivasa said RINL pays Rs 160 crore per month towards bank interest and Rs 300 crore towards GST. “The government never took any initiative to offer concessions during these difficult times.
The state government should have taken the initiative to fund the steel plant,” he said.
