Eight workers at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant died in an accident on June 8 after a vessel containing 1500°C molten steel exploded. At least six other workers were injured, two of whom are in critical conditions.
The accident is unprecedented, according to employees, fire department officials, and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan. Based on preliminary findings, the blast may have been triggered by impurities in the molten metal or may have occurred due to a process-related issue, Visakhapatnam Regional Fire Officer D Niranjan Reddy told TNM.
A three-member external expert committee, headed by the director-in-charge of the Bokaro Steel Plant, has been appointed to conduct an inquiry into the accident.
Employees, meanwhile, have alleged that staff shortages, a compromise in the quality of raw materials, and immense pressure to increase output may have all contributed to the disaster.
According to CITU Visakhapatnam District Secretary RKSV Kumar, nearly 3,000 permanent workers and 5,000 contract workers were fired from the steel plant in recent years without replacement, placing a disproportionate work burden on the remaining employees.
“Workers have complained about the poor quality of equipment several times, from ladles and belts to raw materials,” Kumar said. Employees have also alleged that due to staff shortages, skilled work was being done by administrators with no suitable expertise.
After visiting the steel plant on June 9, Pawan Kalyan told the media that employees had informed him about some of these allegations. “We can’t take them on face value. These were told offhand. A detailed inquiry has been initiated by experts,” he said, while noting that “some kind of upgradation” is needed in the steel plant based on preliminary inspection.
Unprecedented accident
“An explosion of such a level was never seen before. Maybe smaller spillages but not at this level,” said Niranjan Reddy.
“Generally such explosions happen in scrap-melting shops, where iron or other metal scrap is collected and melted to make second-grade steel. The scrap may have impurities or foreign materials, causing such explosions. But here, where fresh steel was being made, such an incident is extreme. It could be a process-related issue,” he added.
The last time the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant saw such a major tragedy was in June 2012. Nineteen people died in an explosion at an oxygen pressure-reducing station in Steel Melting Shop 2. The June 8 explosion occurred in the same shop.
But the latest tragedy has happened under different circumstances at the plant. Tensions are high between the employees’ unions and the state government following attempts to privatise the plant, which is a public sector undertaking under the Union Ministry of Steel managed by the entity Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).
While the government has indicated that the privatisation plans have been put on hold for now, the employees’ unions have alleged that there have been attempts to weaken the steel plant through staff shortages and pressure to increase output.
KM Srinivas, a general foreman who has worked at the steel plant for 36 years, alleged that in recent years, the number of employees and contract workers has been cut down drastically, with the government failing to make new hires.
Srinivas was at work nearby when the explosion happened.
“The quality of raw materials has been compromised, and manpower has been insufficient. There is immense pressure to increase production, despite having nine lakh tons of steel bloom (raw material) in storage. Because of this pressure, it often becomes hard to follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) accurately,” Srinivas said.
Calling the frequent industrial accidents in the Visakhapatnam area alarming, Pawan Kalyan said there must be a review of whether factory managements were doing safety audits, how the Chief Inspector of Factories was functioning, whether violations were reported and whether action was taken.
He referred to allegations by employees like Srinivas, who said that issues of safety and quality were reported to the Chief Inspector of Factories a few months ago, but no action was taken by the steel plant management.
Anger among steel plant employees
In November 2025, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had reprimanded the steel plant employees, insinuating that they were not working hard enough. He accused them of seeking salaries without working to run the plant ‘efficiently’.
Naidu compared the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to private entities such as the upcoming ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) nearby. He said that private plants would become profitable within a year, questioning “losses” at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and suggesting that employees were to blame.
Since 2021, employees and workers’ unions have led protests against the Union government’s proposal of 100% strategic disinvestment of its shareholding in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. All major political parties in the state have supported these protests.
The steel plant has been associated with regional pride and economic rights for the people of Andhra Pradesh, as it was established after massive state-wide agitations in which nearly 32 protesters were killed in police firings.
Pawan Kalyan too mentioned the popular slogan ‘Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku’ (Visakha steel is the right of people of Andhra) during his visit to the steel plant on June 9. “I was foremost among the people who opposed privatisation of the steel plant,” he said, adding that he would soon hold a meeting with employees and address their grievances.
In January 2025, soon after the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP coalition government came to power in Andhra Pradesh, the Union government approved a Rs 11,400 crore financial package to revive the plant.
However, the Vizag Steel Plant Protection Struggle Committee (Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Samithi) has called it a temporary solution and continued their fight, demanding that the plant must have its own captive iron ore mines to truly be strengthened.
Pawan Kalyan claimed that he brought up the issue of captive mines in a meeting with the steel plant unions in the past, but no one came forward to discuss it. “Unions should speak logically and rationally, not just on emotion. Unions are behaving differently depending on which government is in power,” he said.
He also said that the families of the victims will receive compensation apart from the ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh announced by the Union Ministry of Steel. Around Rs 1.72 crore has been earmarked for the families of deceased employees and Rs 48.75 lakh for the families of contract workers, in the form of retirement benefits.
The Union government has also announced that the families of the deceased will be provided permanent jobs and will be allowed to continue residing in the steel plant quarters while their children continue to receive free education.