SAIL to fomally take over Malvika Steel on Feb 27

State-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) will formally take over Malvika Steel Plant, which is currently closed, on Februray 27. The takeover exercise would be completed in the presence of AICC General Secretary and MP from the Amethi constituency Rahul Gandhi, who will be visiting here along with Union Minister for Steel and Chemicals Ram Vilas Paswan and Minister of State for Steel Jitin Prasada, sources said today. Promoted by the Usha Group, the unit had proposed to manufacture 6.8 lakh tonnes of hot metal per annum, but the unit soon ran into rough weather and was formally shut down in 2002, after being declared as sick by its promoter. In 2005, the Debt Recovery Tribunal in New Delhi while issuing an order in favour of IFCI for recovery of Rs 1,037.59 crore from Malvika Steel announced the auction of the plant, which was on 724 acres of land. Two years later, the JP Group acquired the sick unit for a consideration of Rs 207 crore from BIFR, but the acquisition failed to change the fate of the plant, which remained closed ever since. The Centre had finally decided to acquire the unit through SAIL. The unit at the Jagdishpur industrial area was set up in 1989 on the behest of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was then the MP from the Amethi parliamentary constituency.