ABOUT: Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, popularly known as Vizag Steel is an integrated steel producer in Visakhapatnam, India built using German and Soviet technology. The company has grown from a loss-making industry to 3-billion-dollar turnover company registering a growth of 203.6% in just four years. Vizag Steel Plant was conferred Navratna status on 17 November 2010. Founded in 1971, the company focuses on producing value-added steel, with 214,000 tonnes produced in August 2010, out of 252,000 tonnes total of salable steel produced. It is the largest single site plant in India and Asia minor (or south and east Asia combined).

History: On 17 April 1970, the then Prime Minister of India, the late Indira Gandhi, announced the government's decision in the Parliament to establish a steel plant at Visakhapatnam. Planning started by appointing site selection committee in June 1970 and subsequently the committee's report was approved. On 20 January 1971, Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the plant. Consultants were appointed in February 1971, and feasibility reports were submitted in 1972. The first block of land was taken over on 7 April 1974. M/s M.N. Dastur & Co was appointed as the consultants for preparing the detailed project report in April 1975 and in October 1977 they submitted a proposal for 3.4 Mtpa of liquid steel. With the offer for assistance from the government of the erstwhile USSR, a revised project evolved. A detailed project report for a plant with a capacity of 3.4 Mtpa was prepared by M/s M.N. Dastur & Co in November 1980. In February 1981, a contract was signed with the USSR for the preparation of working drawings of coke ovens, blast furnace and sinter plant. The blast furnace foundation was laid, with first mass concreting, in January 1982. The construction of the local township was also started at the same time.