AP Chowdhary, Chairman and Managing Director of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) informed that there was some delay in the execution of the expansion project of the firm from 3 million tonne to 6.3 million tonne.
He said this while delivering the key-note address at the inaugural session of the one-day seminar on emerging trends in construction industry organised here by the Visakhapatnam chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
He remarked that this was the general trend in the steel sector in the country. He stressed on the need to take all steps to avoid time and cost overruns as long gestation period reduces the benefits of expansion.
He opined that the turnkey mode should be preferred to avoid cost overruns and time overruns and reduce the gestation period in project execution. He said the contractor would have to bear the operational risk in turnkey projects and it was essential for timely project execution.
He said the present capacity of RINL after expansion was 7 million tonne or so and in the next phase five mn t more would be added. Visakhapatnam and the neighbourhood would be enormously benefited with each expansion of the steel plant’s capacity, as at least 30 per cent of the cost would be spent in the vicinity.
It would generate a lot of economic activity.
TK Chand, Director (Commercial) of RINL and Chairman of the Vizag zone of the CII, said India would have to learn a lot from China in project execution. The difference between China and India is that in India we calculate project time in terms of years and the Chinese do it in terms of days. Even if the project is delayed by a few days, the Chinese are terribly upset. Even years make no difference to India, he said in a lighter vein.
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