Request to set up steel plant in YSR Kadapa Dist

Special Mention in Rajya Sabha

Request to set up steel plant in YSR Kadapa Dist. in Andhra Pradesh as per AP Re-organisation Act, 2014 The 13th Schedule of the Andhra Pradesh Re-organsation Act, 2014, outlines a plan to establish an integrated steel plant in the YSR Kadapa District in Andhra Pradesh. To this effect, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was to examine the feasibility of such a project within six months. Comprising representatives from the Central and State Govts along with SAIL, RINL and others, a task force was constituted almost two years later to prepare a roadmap for setting up of the steel plant. Unfortunately, it has been three years since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, but the promise has not been fulfilled yet.

YSR Kadapa, like its neighbouring districts of Anantapur and Kurnool, is rich in iron-ore deposits and thereby an ideal location for a steel plant. Even the Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant, which procures iron-ore from places far-away, made profits till three years ago, and is conferred with the ‘Navaratna’ status.
Establishing a steel plant in the YSR district will be financially feasible and profitable when the Government provide necessary tax incentives and subsidies. The steel plant will generate jobs in the Rayalaseema region which is industrially backward with high unemployment rate and socio-economic disadvantages. Organisations like the Steel Plant Saadhana Samithi and Kadapa Ukku Porata Committee have been agitating relentlessly for the cause. I urge the Ministry of Steel to pursue the State Government and the Geological Survey of India to submit the report expeditiously and hasten setting up of integrated steel plant in the YSR Kadapa District to fulfill the much-awaited promise to the people of Rayalaseema region.