Revoke Adani's Bailadila mining contract, says KT Rama Rao

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 12 : Telangana Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao on Monday urged the BJP-led central government to revoke the Bailadila mining contract that was awarded to industrialist Gautam Adani for constructing a steel plant in Mundra, Gujarat.
Speaking to reporters at Telangana Bhavan, KTR also urged the centre to set up the proposed Bayyaram steel plant in Telangana in order to save the loss-making Vishaka steel plant in Andhra Pradesh.
"If the Bailadila contract is saved from the hands of Adani, we can set up the plant in Vizag and Bayyaram. There is a big conspiracy to sell the Vizag steel plant at a very low price," KTR alleged.
"As part of the conspiracy to privatize the steel plant, VSP will be pushed into losses and the crisis will be shown as an excuse to hand it over to crony corporate companies. The central government did not allow the special iron ore mines to the steel plant. Due to this, the steel plant is forced to spend up to 60 per cent of its production cost on raw material," he said earlier in the month.
Despite the state government's repeated appeals to set up a steel plant at Bayyaram, the Union government was not considering the requests, he said.
As per the Andhra Pradesh reorganisation act 2014, the centre assured to set up two steel plants for Telugu people, one in AP's Kadapa and the other in Telangana's Bayyaram, KTR claimed.
Rao said the BJP government said that setting up a steel plant at Bayyaram, was not possible due to low-grade iron ore quality.
He questioned how it was feasible to set up a steel plant in Mundra which is 1800 km from Bailadila but not in Visakhapatnam or Bayyaram which are 600 km and 150 km away, respectively.
"I met PM personally in June 2018. We said the state will bear 50 per cent of the expenditure," he said.
"Even the CM KCR said the same thing. But we didn't know about the conspiracy being hatched in the background," he said.
'The centre had decided to supply iron ore from Bailadilla to a Japanese steel mill and 'POSCO' -a South Korean steal-making company. In September 2018, Adani put up an iron ore mining company and within a short span of time, he issued a statement, saying that he is setting up an Integrated steel plant with 'POSCO' in Gujarat's Mundra," KTR added.
When, Vijay Sai Reddy, Rajya Sabha MP and the national general secretary of YSR Congress Party, sought to know whether the POSCO company will set up any steel plant in Vizag, the union government replied, "The company is thinking about setting up a factory".
Earlier, Union Minister Kishan Reddy said the Bayyaram steel plant is not feasible for the steel authority of India, he said.
Rama Rao said that nearly 1.34 billion tonnes of high-quality iron ore worth roughly Rs 6 lakh crore was available at the Bailadila mines in Chhattisgarh, and if allocated to the Telugu states, it would benefit the VSP and the plan for the Bayyaram steel plant.
"A few big shots in Delhi are eyeing the Bailadila mining contract. They want to sell it to their friends," Rao alleged.
"Our official team is already in Vizag and studying, what can be done. Vishaka steel plant and Bayyaram steel plant are linked through Bailadila," KTR said.
KTR urged the central government to immediately cancel the Bailadila project awarded to Adani and set up the Bayyaram steel plant to strengthen the Vizag steel plant.