Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the
corporate entity of Vizag Steel, plans to expand capacity to 12 million tonnes per annum by 2020-end with an investment outlay of Rs 22,000 crore, a senior company official has said.
The PSU has also appointed MN Dastur, an independent engineering consultancy, to submit a report on the expansion programme, the official added.
"We have plans to further enhance the capacity to 12 million tonnes of liquid steel costing Rs 22,000 crore. RINL would be manufacturing flat products for the first time (after expanding to 12 million tonnes per annum capacity). These products include HR coils of various grades, CR sheets, galvanised coils etc," the official told PTI.
The company has recently expanded its capacity to 6.3 million tonnes from the earlier 3 million tonnes with an investment of over Rs 12,000 crore.
"RINL is investing Rs 4,000 crore for modernisation and
upgrading the health of existing units such as blast furnaces, convertor shops, sinter plants etc for enhancing the capacity by one million tonne per annum to reach 7.3 million tonnes by 2015-16," the official added.
The PSU will be undertaking projects worth around Rs 5,000 crore in the next two to three years, which includes a forged wheel plant at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and an axle plant at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.
The plant shall supply 85,000 wheels and there will also
be an assured offtake for 26 years (from the project) by Railways.
Former Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge had earlier said that the production from this factory will help in meeting the demand and result in import substitution.
The unit would manufacture and supply rail axles to meet the growing requirement of Indian Railways. The plant will have the facility of forging and heat treatment of about 50,000 axles per year.
RINL chairman P Madhusudan had recently called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and apprised him of the capacity expansion programmes.
RINL is aiming to achieve 4.4 million tonnes of saleable steel in the current financial year with a gross sale of over Rs 19,000 crore, the official added.
