Govt assigns additional charge of RINL's CMD to Ajit Kumar Saxena

The government has assigned the additional charge of CMD RINL to Ajit Kumar Saxena, a regulatory filing said on Monday.

Saxena is currently the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of MOIL, a PSU under the Ministry of Steel.

"We have received an order...dated 29.09.2024 from Ministry of Steel assigning the additional charge of the post of CMD, RINL to Ajit Kumar Saxena, CMD, MOIL Ltd with immediate effect...," MOIL said in the filing.

As per sources, Atul Bhatt the CMD of RINL is on personal leave from September 9 till November 30, which is also the date of his superannuation.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), under the Ministry of Steel, is a steel manufacturing company. It owns and operates a 7.5 million tonne plant at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The company has been facing severe financial and operational issues.

According to a steel ministry document, RINL is in serious financial trouble. It has been running at minimal capacity and facing continuous losses. The overall dues of RINL have gone above Rs 35,000 crore and it is at the risk of being classified as a non-performing asset by banks.

The document said that the ministry is taking steps to keep RINL as a 'going concern' in consultation with the finance ministry.

RINL has three blast furnaces (BF) of 2.5 MT each, of which only BF no. 2 is in operation.