After the cyclone Hudhud on October 12, the production in all the units including rolling mills in the Rashtriya Ispat Niam Limited - Visakhapatnam steel plant has been revived, according to a press release.

The release issued here on Sunday said that the revival of raw material-handling facilities, coke ovens, blast furnaces and SMS-1 was completed by October 22. The second line for emergency power for supply of additional 50 MW of power to VSP was connected and charged on October 27 with the help of AP Transco and Power Grid, enabling the RINL to revive wire rod mill-1 on October 31 and SMS-2 and MMSM on November 1. The rolling in LMMM where furnace heating started on October 30 was scheduled to commence late on Sunday.

The repairs to the damaged roofs have also been taken up by the RINL on a war footing and work in critical areas has already been completed. The SAIL is supplying necessary material on a priority basis and the balance work on sheeting is expected to get completed in 2 to 3 weeks time.

P Madhusudan, the CMD, expressed great satisfaction that RINL could revive operations in 3 weeks time despite breakdown of major water supply line in power plant leading to tripping of captive power generation and delaying the process of recovery by three days. He complimented the RINL collective for the safe and speedy revival. He also expressed gratitude to the outside experts for timely guidance to the RINL team on revival initiatives. He also thanked the trade unions, the Steel Executive Association and other associations of RINL, the district administration, AP Transco, Power Grid, the Ministry of Steel, the State and Central Governments for their support extended in the revival process.

#sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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