NEW DELHI: The government has decided to shut SAIL's loss- making Visveswaraya Iron & Steel Plant (VISP) at Bhadravathi in Karnataka, Parliament was informed on Monday.

The government had originally planned for privatising VISP and had invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for selling SAIL's 100 per cent stake in the unit in July 2019.

However, in October last year, the government decided to scrap the strategic disinvestment plans of VISP due to low bidder interest.

In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said the shortlisted bidders had expressed inability to participate in the sale process of VISP.

''On account of old machinery, sub-optimal size, continuous losses and shutdown of blast furnace for a long time, it has been decided to initiate the process for closure of this unit,'' Karad said.

The Cabinet had in October 2016 cleared strategic disinvestment of SAIL's 100 per cent stake in VISP.

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