India’s Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Ltd (VISL), a near-defunct government-run steel mill earmarked for winding up will be given a new lease of life as a producer of specialty steel equipped to supply critical sectors like defence production and aerospace, secretary of the ministry of steel, Sandeep Poundrik, said in a statement on Thursday, June 12.
“We will examine whether such production is possible at VISL We are looking for all options and we will decide based on the feasibility study,” he said.
On estimated investments that might be required to revive VISL, he said, “There is no such estimate right now. We will first study what can be done and how it can be done. After that we will decide on investment.”
On the revival of Salem Steel Plant, another sick unit of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), he said, “We have visited Salem. It is working below capacity. We have asked them to use full capacity which is around 0.35 million mt per year. Once they do it, we will explore the option of expanding the plant.”