VSP looks for alternative iron ore

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) is making alternative arrangements for iron ore procurement to tide over the crisis resulting from stoppage of iron ore production in the National Mineral Development Corporation's (NMDC) Bailadila mines in Chhattisgarh.

NMDC supplies about 6 million tonne of ore every year to VSP from Bailadila mines where three high-tension transmission towers were blasted by Maoist recently.

The ore comes from Bailadila mines to Visakhapatnam through the Kirandol-Kothavalasa (K-K) railway line.

On a daily basis, VSP gets around 20,000 tonne of ore through the K-K railway line, but now the ore movement has stopped since the last ten days.

"Currently, we have iron ore stocks for two weeks. To avoid disruption in production operations, we are working out alternative procurement plans," VSP sources said.

With the support of NMDC and ministry of steel, VSP is exploring possibilities to mobilise additional supplies from NMDC's Donimalai mines in Karnataka, SAIL mines, Orissa Mineral Development Corporation mines, Khudremukh (Pellets) and JSW (Pellets), they added.