Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (abbreviated as RINL), also known as ''Vizag Steel'', is a central public sector undertaking under the

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as '' title'', which may be separated and held by dif ...

Ministry of Steel The Ministry of Steel is an executive branch agency of the Government of India that is responsible for formulating all policies regarding steel production, distribution and pricing in India. As of June 2024, the ministry is headed by a Secretary ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

based in

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is the government entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), India's first shore-based integrated steel plant built with state-of-the-art technology. Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) is a 7.3 MTPA plant. It was commissioned in 1992 with a capacity of 3.0 MTPA of liquid steel. The CPSU subsequently completed its capacity expansion to 6.3 MTPA in April 2015 and to 7.3 MTPA in December 2017. The PSU is having one

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

, viz. Eastern Investment Limited (EIL) with 51% shareholding, which in turn is having two

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unl ...

, viz. M/s Orissa Mineral Development Company Ltd (OMDC) and M/s Bisra Stone Lime Company Ltd (BSLC). The CPSU has a partnership in RINMOIL Ferro Alloys Private Limited and International Coal Ventures Limited in the form of Joint Ventures with 50% and 26.49% shareholding respectively. RINL is wholly owned by the

Location

The steel plant is in the southern part of

city, Andhra Pradesh state of India. The company has blast furnace grade Limestone captive mine at Jaggayyapeta (Krishna District), a captive mine for Dolomite at Madharam (Khammam), a manganese ore captive mine at Cheepurupalli (Vizianagaram). It also has a mining lease for river sand on the

river Champavathi River Champavathi () is a small river which originates in the Eastern Ghats at an altitude of 1,200 metres above mean sea level near Andra village and flows eastwards and joins the Bay of Bengal near the village Konada. The river passes ...

History

On 17 April 1970, the Prime Minister of India, the

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

, announced the government's decision to establish a steel plant at Visakhapatnam. With the offer of assistance from the government of the erstwhile

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, a revised project evolved some years later. A detailed project report for a plant with a capacity of 3.4 Mtpa was prepared in November 1980 and in February 1981, a contract was signed with the USSR for the preparation of working drawings of

coke ovens Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content. It is made by heating coal or petroleum in the absence of air. Coke is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ore smelting, but also as a fuel in stoves ...

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

and

sinter plant Sinter plants agglomerate iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty r ...

. The blast furnace foundation was laid, with first mass concreting, in January 1982. The construction of the local township was also started at the same time. In the 1970s, Kurupam Zamindars donated 6,000 acres of land for Vizag Steel Plant. A new company

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (abbreviated as RINL), also known as ''Vizag Steel'', is a Public sector undertakings in India, central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Steel, Government of India based in Visakhapatnam, In ...

(RINL) was formed on 18 February 1982. Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was separated from

SAIL A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

and RINL was made the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in April 1982. Vizag Steel Plant is the only Indian shore-based steel plant and is situated on , and is poised to expand to produce up to 20 MT in a single campus. Turnover in 2011-2012 was Rs 14,457

crores Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the Indian ...

. On 20 May 2009, Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

launched the expansion project of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant from a capacity of 3.6 MT to 6.3 MT at a cost of Rs. 8,692 crores. But the investment was revised to 14,489 crores with the following classification: * Expenditure for the financial year 2009-10 Rs 1840 crores. * Rs 5883 crores since inception of the project. * Total commitment, including enabling works, steel procurement, consultancy, spares, etc. is Rs 11591 crores as of 25 March 2010. In November 2010, the company was granted the ''Navratna'' status by the Government of India. In September 2011, the government announced plans to divest 10% of its stake in RINL via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. In February 2021, the Cabinet approved the privatisation of steel-maker Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL). This decision caused massive protests in Vizag city. As of 2017, the company had planned to expand its production capacity further by one more MT which required an investment of Rs.4,500 crore.

Operations

RINL operates a 7.3 million tonne per annum capacity steel plant in

. The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is the integrated steel plant founded in 1982 that focuses on producing value-added steel, producing 5.773 million tonnes of hot metal, 5.272 million tonnes of crude steel and 5.138 million tonnes of saleable steel in the 2021-2022 financial year. According to the India Daily Times, the plant is expected to skyrocket in terms of production in the nearest future. During the initial periods, the company suffered huge losses. Later the profits have gone up by 200% making it the only steel industry to achieve such a target. Its annual capacity is expected to reach almost 7.5 million tonnes by 2020. RINL plans to invest to increase the capacity to 20 million tonnes by 2027.

Accidents

*On 13 June 2012, 19 people died during a trial run of recently commissioned oxygen plant, due to a massive explosion in the plant. Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma visited and announced

Ex gratia (; also spelled ''ex-gratia'') is Latin for "by favor", and is most often used in a legal context. When something has been done ''ex gratia'', it has been done voluntarily, out of kindness or grace. In law, an ''ex gratia payment'' is a payment ...

to each person. * In June 2014, two engineers were fatally injured in a suspected case of

Carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...

. *On 7 November 2014, a minor explosion occurred in the Blast Furnace II but there were no casualties. *In February 2015, an assistant general manager was involved in a fatal accident when he fell into a rotating drum. *On 18 January 2019, a hot metal pipe was exploded in Blast furnace number 3. There were no casualties.

Township

The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Township (VSPT), also known as Ukkunagaram () was developed on 8000 acres of land, providing housing and accommodations for many of the employees. The township has 8200 dwellings spread over 12 sectors and 3900 acres, as well as a green belt of 4260 acres. The town also has multiple temples, churches, a mosque, gurudwara, athletic facilities, hospital, police station, post office, shopping malls, schools, indoor and outdoor stadiums. Some of the most famous temples include the Shivalayam, Goddess Kali temple, Venkateshwara temple, Shirdi Baba temple, Puri Jagannadh temple, Tri-Shakti temple, Ayyapa temple, and the Sathya Sai Baba Mandir. Besides, there are marriage halls and clubs for conducting various activities for entertainment such as screening of movies, hosting parties, felicitating people and celebrating festivals.

References

External links

* {{authority control Steel companies of India Companies based in Visakhapatnam Manufacturing companies established in 1982 Economy of Visakhapatnam Indian companies established in 1982 Recipients of the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar