Mishap at sinter plant disrupts production of steel plant

Production was disrupted at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on Tuesday following a ‘breakdown’ in the sinter plant.

The incident took place in the morning due to partial collapse of the structure holding conveyors in the sinter plant preventing sending of ‘screened sinter’ – mixture of various raw materials – to the three blast furnaces.

While an official described the incident as ‘minor’ without much impact on the regular production, the representatives of workers’ unions said the incident might hamper production for two to three days.

Steel Plant Workers’ Union (recognised union) president N. Rama Rao and honorary president of Visakha Steel Employees’ Union Padi Trinadha Rao blamed overload and poor maintenance for the incident.

Mr. Trinadha Rao alleged that the management was attaching more importance to IPO of RINL, the corporate entity of VSP, than augmenting the safety apparatus. The unions have called for a 48-hour strike against offloading of 10 per cent stake of the government on October 12 and 13.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director (Industrial Relations and Personnel) G.B.S. Prasad held a meeting with the representatives of all the unions and appealed to them not to go ahead with the strike against disinvestment or allow emergency operations and not prevent executives from going to work.

The unions had gone on one-day strike on July 24 to register their protest against disinvestment saying: VSP is the pride of Andhra Pradesh and the plant was established after ‘Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku’ agitation.