KTR urges Centre, State to join hands to revive Adilabad CCI plant

A BRS delegation led by working president KT Rama Rao met Union Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy in New Delhi, pressing for the revival of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) plant at Adilabad. Kumaraswamy assured support but stressed that the Telangana government must extend incentives and mining lease concessions.

New Delhi: Stepping up the demand for the revival of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) plant at Adilabad, a BRS delegation led by the party working president KT Rama Rao met Union Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy in New Delhi on Wednesday. 

The party said the Union Minister responded positively to the demand and assured all support to reopen the plant.

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He was accompanied by BRS Parliamentary Party leader Vaddiraju Ravichandra, former Minister Jogu Ramanna, and members of the CCI Sadhana Samithi.

Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Rama Rao said Kumaraswamy responded positively to the demand and indicated that the Centre was favourable towards reviving the plant. However, the Union Minister stressed that the revival required active support from the Telangana government, including proposals on incentives, power subsidy, capital subsidy, GST concessions and extension of the assured mining lease.

“The site has about 2,300 acres of land, including 770 acres of freehold land and over 1,500 acres under lease. The Union Minister observed that establishing a new cement plant with an investment of about Rs 2,000 crore was a viable option,” he said, adding that over 6,000 families were dependent on the plant for their livelihood.

Drawing parallels with the revival of the Sirpur Paper Mill during the BRS regime, the former Minister proposed that the Centre and the State contribute Rs 250 crore each towards an initial Rs 500 crore investment, with the remaining funds raised through institutional finance. He also referred to the Centre’s financial support for the revival of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, urging both governments to adopt a similar approach for Adilabad.

He castigated the Congress government over its failure to respond to the Centre’s requests over the past year despite repeated reminders. He urged the Congress government to immediately announce its investment plan and extend the mining lease.

The delegation recalled that the CCI plant, established in the 1980s, once provided direct and indirect employment to nearly 6,000 people and has limestone reserves sufficient for another century. They also pointed out that the plant has a production capacity of four lakh metric tonnes.

Rama Rao expressed disappointment that assurances given by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister of State (MoS) Hansraj Gangaram during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections regarding the plant’s revival had not materialised. Instead, he said the facility was being dismantled and sold as scrap.