Member of Parliament from Visakhapatnam M. Sribharat held separate meetings on Friday to review the revival of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and also accelerating railway infrastructure development works in the region.

Mr. Sribharat, along with Gajuwaka MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao, met Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) Chairman and Managing Director M.N.V.S. Prabhakar at the Steel Plant Administrative Building to review production, market conditions and profitability under the new RINL leadership.

Mr. Sribharat expressed confidence that the plant would return to profitability within the coming year, citing improved teamwork among staff following a recent accident that had disrupted operations.

He noted that the Centre and State governments had together allocated ₹14,000 crore towards the plant’s revival, and said this would bear fruit only once the unit returned to profit. He added that profitability would allow salary arrears, pension dues and Voluntary Retirement Scheme payments to be cleared in a phased manner. He also noted that pensioner payments had recently resumed.

Railway issues

In a separate meeting, Mr. Sribharat met South Coast Railway (SCoR) General Manager Sandeep Mathur at the Zonal Headquarters in Siripuram. He raised the transfer requests of railway employees posted in the Rayagada Division after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Waltair Division, urging the General Manager to take up the matter with the East Coast Railway and the Railway Board on humanitarian grounds.

The MP also sought expedited construction of the third and fourth lines between Gopalapatnam and Visakhapatnam, an increase in the number of platforms at Visakhapatnam Railway Station from eight to 14, and modernisation of signalling and passenger facilities.

He asked that bottlenecks along the Visakhapatnam-Gopalapatnam-Kothavalasa corridor be addressed to improve punctuality and sought a halt at Duvvada for Vande Bharat trains 20833 and 20708. He also requested new Vande Bharat services to Tirupati, Chennai, Secunderabad and Bengaluru, and a night express to the Amaravati-Guntur region.