A lifeline for Vizag Steel

Visakhapatnam, or as the Telugu biddas like to call it, ‘Vizag’, is Andhra Pradesh’s biggest metro city and lays claim to such honorifics as the ‘shipbuilding capital of India’ and the ‘jewel of the East coast’. And among the jewels the city boasts of is the government-owned Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) or the Vizag Steel Plant (VSP), declared a ‘Navaratna’ in 2010 but now facing an uncertain future. In 2021, the Union cabinet had approved the disinvestment plan for the plant, but after massive protests in the city, the move was put on ice.