RINL expects Rs 1,000-crore from sale of 22-acre land in Visakhapatnam

State-owned RINL expects to garner Rs 1,000 crore from the sale of its 22.19 acre land located in the heart of Visakhapatnam city, a popular tourist destination in Andhra Pradesh.

On Thursday, state-run construction company NBCC had announced signing an MoU with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) for redevelopment and monetisation of its 22.19 acres of land in Visakhapatnam.

"The company expects to get around Rs 1,000 crore as the market price of land is around Rs 1 lakh per square yard. The amount raised would be utilised to pay back portion of debt of the company," a source in the company told PTI.

According to available data on RINL's website, the company had a net debt of Rs 19,592 crore in financial year 2018-19.

The company without any captive iron ore mine produces over 19,000 tonne of hot metal per day from its three fully operational blast furnaces at the plant.

The per tonne steel production cost of a company with captive iron ore and coking mine is less compared to a steel maker buying raw materials from the open market, an expert said.

Sharing details with respect to the land parcel, the source said it is at Maddilapalem which is a prime location situated about 3-4 km from the beach. NH-16 which connects Howrah in West Bengal to Chennai in Tamil Nadu passes at a distance of about 2 km from the site. Besides, the land is in the proximity of tourist attractions like zoo, Simhachalam temple, stadium etc.

However, the value of the project would be ascertained after the preparation and finalisation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR). NBCC would conduct the DPR and submit it to RINL.

The redevelopment and monetisation would be undertaken on a self-sustainable model.

RINL, under the Ministry of Steel, owns and operates a 7.3 million tonne steel plant in Visakhapatnam. It is the country's first shore-based integrated steel plant producing special steel products.