Instead, the company would find ways and means to make the plant viable, they said here. The decision to reject international management consultancy firm's recommendation was conveyed by company chairman Arvind Pande to all the trade unions at a meeting held recently.

The SAIL management represented by Pande and other high-ranking officials, including managing director of Durgapur steel plant S B Singh, RDCIS director S K Bhattacharya, had an extensive interaction with CITU and INTUC leaders yesterday to discuss the future of ASP, which is reeling under severe losses.

Pande said the management's objective was to make ASP viable and the company was open to suggestions from the trade unions in this regard. SAIL sources said the trade unions had suggested that ASP's revival plan should be classified underthree broad heads, namely survival, viability and long-term growth and the management had agreed to look into the proposals brought forward by them.

A committee has also been formed under the chairmanship of S K Bhattacharya to look into the various aspects regarding the viability of ASP and suggest remedial measures.

Earlier, the company management had taken steps to infuse some productive activity into the plant by routing the supply of hot metal from DSP. This had helped the company in reducing the cost of production, the sources said. The plant is also considering to manufacture ferro alloys and is aiming to register a positive gross margin this fiscal, the sources added.