Telangana Today reported that CPM state secretariat member and CITU state president Mr Narasinga Rao said that coercive tactics by Gangavaram port has forced Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited’s Visakhapatnam steel plant to pay an additional INR 60 crore every year for import of raw materials. He alleged “VSP is exporting steel on a large scale to other countries. After the Adani group took over the Gangavaram port recently, it began blackmailing the steel plant and brought pressure on it to hike the tariff. It stacked the limestone in its godowns and stopped supply to the steel plant from March this year.” He explained “Under an agreement reached in 2011, Gangavaram port has to transport raw materials for VSP till 2026 and the VSP was paying Gangavaram port INR 284 per tonne of limestone. The agreement has to be honoured till 2026 but Gangavaram port forced VSP to hike INR 60 per ton of limestone from March and further to INR 120 per tonne from December this year. Every year, VSP imports 1.8 million tonnes of limestone from Dubai and it have to pay INR 70 crore more to Gangavaram port now.”With the VSP importing 5 million tonnes of coking coal annually, Mr Narasinga Rao fears that Gangavaram port could hike coking coal charges also in the same way and place unbearable burden on the steel plant.
Telangana Today reported that CPM state secretariat member and CITU state president Mr Narasinga Rao said that coercive tactics by Gangavaram port has forced Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited’s Visakhapatnam steel plant to pay an additional INR 60 crore every year for import of raw materials. He alleged “VSP is exporting steel on a large scale to other countries. After the Adani group took over the Gangavaram port recently, it began blackmailing the steel plant and brought pressure on it to hike the tariff. It stacked the limestone in its godowns and stopped supply to the steel plant from March this year.” He explained “Under an agreement reached in 2011, Gangavaram port has to transport raw materials for VSP till 2026 and the VSP was paying Gangavaram port INR 284 per tonne of limestone. The agreement has to be honoured till 2026 but Gangavaram port forced VSP to hike INR 60 per ton of limestone from March and further to INR 120 per tonne from December this year. Every year, VSP imports 1.8 million tonnes of limestone from Dubai and it have to pay INR 70 crore more to Gangavaram port now.”With the VSP importing 5 million tonnes of coking coal annually, Mr Narasinga Rao fears that Gangavaram port could hike coking coal charges also in the same way and place unbearable burden on the steel plant.
