Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

DSP upgrade likely to be delayed

Debjoy Sengupta

The enquiry into Durgapur Steel Plant's modernisation will take more time than expected as the investigation team has been unable to track down all the key participants in the plant's update programme. As a result, the committee has asked for a six- month time, and has said it will submit the report in September.

According to R K Prasannan, development commissioner for iron and steel and a member of the committee, "Most of the officials engaged in the modernisation have either retired or have opted for the voluntary retirement scheme that was announced recently."

This has become a major impediment. The committee is of the view that it should interact with all the persons who were in one way or other connected with the mordernisation, Prasannan said.

The modernisation process at DSP involved more time, and has a large number of suppliers, both local and overseas. Tracing all suppliers is a mammoth task, said Prasannan. Many suppliers have left after completing their job.

The committee is also facing problems to trace all the files containing information on the modernisation exercise. With more than a thousand files to check, "the team will not be able to come up with a report in less than a year's time," he added.

The committee was set up with a view to finding whether the modernisation at Durgapur Steel Plant had been according to the expectations and whether the plant was manufacturing products at competitive costs following the modernisation. The steel ministry is reportedly unhappy with the modernisation process and instituted a probe.

DSP has been in the red for quite some time now and the plant has been reeling under low margins besides acute competition from overseas as well as domestic manufacturers.

Powered by

ALSO READ:
The Rediff-Business Standard Special
The Budget 2001-2002 Special
Money
Business News

Tell us what you think of this report