Union Minister Piyush Goyal visited Vizag steel Plant

Vishakapatnam, June 22: The Union Minister of State for Energy and Coal Piyush Goyal has visited Visakhapatnam steel plant here on Wednesday.

Minister Piyush advised the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited and Visakhapatnam steel plant to foray into solar energy and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

On a maiden visit to the steel plant on Wednesday, he was received by Chairman-cum-Managing Director P Madhusudan and the employees.

Later, Mr. Goyal visited the model room and he was apprised of the latest technologies in the plant.

He advised RINL to foray into solar and renewable energy sources to generate power. The Central Government would provide the necessary support and incentives to the industries who come forward to set up solar power plants in the country, he said and assured full support to RINL in the allocation of coal blocks. He expressed happiness at the green cover in and around the plant.

Trade union leaders and representatives submitted representations to the minister to allocate captive iron ore mines to the RINL.

They said in the representation that due to lack of captive iron ore mines the production cost of the RINL was much higher than in the other PSU steel plants or private ones. The problem should be addressed immediately, they pleaded.