T'gana Minister urges Centre to revive CCI plant in Adilabad

Hyderabad: Telangana Industries Minister K T Rama Rao on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to take steps to revive the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) unit at Adilabad.

Rama Rao's appeal to Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal came in the wake of reports that the Centre has called for tenders to auction the machinery in the CCI unit as scrap.

"Appeal to @PiyushGoyal Ji & Govt of India to review & take positive decision to revive the Cement Corporation of India unit in Adilabad," Rama Rao tweeted.

The state government would extend all support and provide the required fiscal incentives to ensure that thousands of youth from Adilabad are gainfully employed, he said.

In January this year, he had written letters to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey to reopen the CCI unit.

Reopening of the CCI unit would not only help Telangana but also neighbouring states like Maharashtra, said Rama Rao, who is the son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

The construction industry is witnessing a boom in the state and the demand for cement would always be high, he had pointed out.

Commissioned in 1984, the CCI unit in Adilabad reportedly stopped manufacturing in 1996 for want of working capital and became 'sick' as per the sanctioned scheme of the erstwhile Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).