The General Administration department of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate body of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), issued a circular on November 4, stating that “no electric vehicles shall be charged using electrical power inside and outside the plant areas of RINL’s office, work and common areas.”
Any violation in this regard by anyone, including employees, contractors, contract workers, security personnel, vendors and visitors, will amount to ‘electricity theft’ and will be punishable and subject to legal action as per the company’s rules.
The circular has sparked outrage among the staff.
An electric vehicle user of the company, said, “An electric scooter typically uses one to 6 units (kWh) of electricity for a full charge, with a typical range of 2.5 to 4 units. The exact number of units depends on the scooter’s battery size, capacity, and charger specifications. This is a negligible number of units for a company employee when comparing with the company’s overall electricity consumption.
Another user said, “The company has put 355% of salaries on hold since September 2024 to August this year. The company is not paying salaries on time and in full, but is making these rules and regulations. If the company is really losing hundreds of crores due to employees charging their electric vehicles, then a charging station should have been set up inside the plant so that employees could go to the station, and pay the charging charges from their own pockets.”
When contacted, a RINL official from the management’s side said that the company may have issued such a circular based on a complaint from any of the staff regarding misuse of electrical power. Moreover, the company may have taken such a bold decision to avoid any fire accidents due to short circuits at switchboards from charging electric vehicle batteries.
Published – November 06, 2025 08:41 pm IST
