2.5 million tons per annum to be added
Blast furnace-1, which was shutdown on May 15 for want of raw material, is back in operation today, bringing cheers to officials and staff. BF-3 remains shut. Capacity of BF-2 was recently increased from around 4 MT to 7.5 MT. (Photo: X)
Visakhaptnam: Blast Furnace -1 Godavari was lit up on Monday and will restart production in another 20 days, said a senior official of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The furnace was closed on May 14 this year due to the shortage of raw material. Blast furnace-3 Annapurna was shut down on September 12 this year, due to lack of coal and iron ore. Only Blast Furnace-2 Krishna was operating, producing 2.5 million tons per annum. All three furnaces combinedly could produce 21,000 tons of steel per day.
Though no formal function was organised, trade union leaders Ayodhya Ram, Varasala Srinivasa Rao and others performed a puja before the furnace was lit. They said there was enough raw material to run both the furnaces. The plant gets coking coal from Australia and iron ore locally. The union leaders said the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) provided five shiploads of coal to the RINL.
Meanwhile, the members of all trade unions staged a dharna in front of the RINL administrative building from 8 am to 3 pm, criticising the anti-labor policy of the central government and the delay in the payment of wages to the employees. The protesters said the CISF personnel, contract laborers and regular employees were not being paid wages regularly. The final settlements of deceased and retired workers have also been kept pending, they lamented.
The leaders raised slogans demanding the merger of the RINL with the SAIL and allocating captive mines for the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. Senior trade union leaders D. Adinarayana, Mantgri Rajasekhar and Neerukonda Ramachandra Rao were present at the dharna.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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