Laying the foundation for the three Million Tonnes Per Annum Kadapa Steel Plant (KSP) at Sunnapurallapalle village in Jammalamadugu mandal of Kadapa district on Monday, Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) Chief Minister (CM) Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy promised to shoulder the responsibility of completing it even if big private companies did not come forward to invest in the project estimated to cost ₹ 15,000 crore.
KSP, which was incorporated as A.P. High Grade Steels Limited, is one of the major promises made at the time of bifurcation of the unified State of A.P.
Three-year completion deadline
While pointing out that the five-year-long wait for the steel plant did not bear any fruit, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy asserted that the present government would fulfill that dream in three years.
Addressing a public meeting on the occasion, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the most important step of sourcing iron ore has already been taken in the form of the MoU signed with the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) a few days ago.
Moreover, the KSP would provide direct and indirect employment to nearly 25,000 people. The CM said the Central government had promised Special Category Status (SCS) and a committee to set up a steel plant in Rayalaseema in compliance with the A.P. Reorganization Act. The SCS and steel plant would have given a fillip to the development of the parched region but promises were confined to rhetoric.
‘Right of Andhra Pradesh’
However, the YSR Congress Government was committed to accomplishing the task, as, like the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant for which six students and three employees laid down their lives during the ‘Andhrula Hakku Visakha Ukku’ agitation in 1966, KSP was the ‘Right of Andhra Pradesh’.
The State government allotted about 3,275 acres in Sunnapurallapalle and Peddanandaluru villages for KSP and 2 TMCFT of water would be supplied to it from Gandikota Reservoir.
Commenting on the national steel sector, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the production capacity last year was 1.06 crore tonnes per annum and as per the latest National Steel Policy, it needs to cross the three-crore tonnes mark by 2030.
Realising an old Rayalaseema dream
“On completion, the KSP would start making a significant contribution to national steel production,” he said. Further, he observed that “though setting up industries and factories is not the government’s business, the State took the KSP initiative to realise the long - awaited dream of having a steel plant in Rayalaseema to provide jobs and kick-start a fresh beginning in the industrial landscape of the region”.
