Inquiry committee to probe SAIL modernisation
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 26: Centre will soon set up an inquiry committee at the appropriate level to probe into the various aspects of the Rs 12,000 crore spent on modernisation of different steel plants under the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Union Steel Minister Dilip Ray said today.

The inquiry committee will specifically go into the more than three time cost escalation of the modernisation project, Ray told reporters here.

Ray recalled that he himself had demanded a CBI inquiry into the modernisation of SAIL when he was not the Steel Minister saying, we have to find out where we went wrong.

The Minister said about 20 SAIL officers had been already either placed under suspension, demoted or transferred for various lapses in the handling of the modernisation project.

He said the huge funds utilised for modernisation had been provided from SAIL's own resources or obtained as loans from financial institutions. Of this amount, over Rs 5,000 crore had been spent on modernisation of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) in Orissa.

Pointing out that the Central Government had not been providing any funds to the SAIL for the last 15 years, Ray said the SAIL which made a profit of Rs 1,160 crore in 1994-95 was in dire straits at present.

SAIL's profits started declining since 1997-98 with the company's projected loss during 1999-2000 estimated at Rs 2,700 crore. But because of financial restructuring, the loss had been revised to Rs 2,000 crore.

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