RINL CMD P. Madhusudan inspecting a guard of honour at I-Day parade at Ukkunagaram in Visakhapatnam on on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: arranged Industries in the city joined the nation in celebrating the 71st Independence Day with a call to increase productivity and reduce cost to face a highly-competitive and challenging environment. Service awards were given away for meritorious services after conducting colourful parades typified with pomp and gaiety. A festive atmosphere pervaded all over the city. The managements also reviewed their report card during the year. RINL CMD P. Madhusudan unfurled the national flag and inspected the guard of honour accorded by the CISF jawans, home guards and school children of Ukkunagaram at Trishna Grounds. He called for capacity utilisation and the need to surpass techno-economic benchmarks. He observed that volume growth with right product mix is the only solution in the current market scenario to generate adequate resources for sustainable operations and to navigate RINL journey to success. Mr. Madhusudan mentioned that success would depend on the strength of the two primary pillars of business – safety and transparency and added that safety should be the top most priority in its operations and transparency carries significant weight. On growth trajectory VPT Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu after a ceremonial guard of honour at Parade Grounds, Salagramapuram said the port was on the growth trajectory after a gap of five years. It could handle 61.02 million tonne in 2016-17. He said besides achieving growth in cargo volume, the port had also established significant improvement in operational efficiency. The port had also maintained the growth momentum by handling nearly 22 million tonne as on Tuesday, he said adding their thrust was on improving efficiency parameters and cost effectiveness. He distributed merit certificates to the port community for their contribution to the growth of the port. NTPC Simhadri Super Thermal Plant Group General Manager N.K. Sinha unfurled the tricolour at a ceremonial parade at Deepanjalinagar and distributed merit certificates to senior employees. In his address, he said NTPC had installed capacity of 51,671 MW as on date and Simhadri had been successfully operating Unit-III continuously for the past three months and Unit-I for the past two months. Ash utilisation had been 99% as on date and it would improve further. He said as pm July 15, they could move 430 tonne of ash through trucks setting a new record. GST welcomed HPCL Visakh Refinery Executive Director Prasad Sarma hoisted the national flag on the refinery premises and inspected a guard of honour from CISF. Mr. Sarma dwelt upon the economic scenario and welcomed rolling out of GST. He harped on the improvement of safety in refinery operations and also emphasised on safety/environmental measures and its systemic implementation. He appraised the developments in the refinery and complimented the employees. He later presented the service awards to 76 employees who had completed 15 to 35 years of service. Dredging Corporation of India CMD Rajesh Tripathi in his I-Day address said the company had won a big contract from Mumbai Port. A tricolour was hoisted by senior employee K. Satya Rao at the celebrations held at BHEL-HPVP School. BHEL-HPVP Executive Director J. Govindaswamy, inspected the guard of honour.NTPC-Pudimadaka, Visakh Container Terminal, Vizag Sea Ports Ltd, NALCO, Coromandel International, Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone, AP-SEZ, Brandix and other units also organised I-Day functions.HSL gives commendation letters

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