The government is planning strategic disinvestment of the Salem Steel Plant (SSP) in Tamil Nadu and not total disinvestment, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said the financial reports of the SSP in the last few years showed a “dismal” picture of the once most reputed steel plant in the country.
“There is a proposal for strategic disinvestment of the Salem Steel Plant, not total disinvestment,” he said during Question Hour.
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The Minister said legal advisers and surveyors have been deployed to make a detailed analysis of the plant and a decision on the future of the plant would be taken after receiving their reports.
Considered best plant
Mr. Singh said the plant, which produced 3.39 lakh metric tonnes per annum of steel, was considered to be the country’s best plant producing stainless steel.
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The Minister said it had come to light that the plant was suffering a huge loss due to the high power tariff and the Tamil Nadu government had been requested to provide power at reasonable rates.
Replying to another question, Mr. Singh said India has a crude steel capacity of 126 million tonnes as on March 2017.
“The National Steel Policy 2017 envisages enhancing the domestic crude steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31,” he said.