The Vizag steel is the pride of Andhra Pradesh and reconsider disinvestment decision of the government, said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The chief minister wrote a letter to Modi saying that the state government is ready to work with the Central government to protect the steel plant, which Jagan termed as the “Jewel of Andhra Pradesh.”
The chief minister further said that the steel plant was established in 1970s after 32 people laid their lives for the plant in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
He said that the steel plant had recovered from the losses and is now earning over Rs 200 crore profit per month and would recover all the losses in the next two years.
The chief minister further said that the plant had come to its highest production capacity of 6.30 MT per year out of the total capacity of 7.3 MT.
The chief minister told the Prime Minister that the steel plant has over Rs 2000 crore financial burden paying interest on loans and sought to advise him to convert this loan into equity share to give financial relief.
The chief minister wanted the PM to reconsider the decision of disinvestment in this Navaratna Company, which is one of the largest public sector companies in the state.
He said that the Central government’s decision had become cause of concern for the people of the state and requested the Prime Minister to withdraw the disinvestment proposal.