New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS): As part of its efforts to strengthen its balance sheet and investment grade credit metrics, metal and mining major Vedanta Resources Limited (VRL) has embarked on a major drive to reduce its debt and release its shares pledged to investors.

In a regulatory filing deadline in the Singapore Exchange, the company on Monday said that it has reduced its net debt (including Inter Company Loan and loan at Volcan) by $300 million in H1 and expects to further reduce its debt by $500 million in H2 FY22.

With entire debt repayment at Volcan, the pledge on all the equity shares of VRL has been released, the company informed the exchange.

"We believe that strong operational performance from our world class asset base will strengthen our balance sheet and lead to investment grade credit metrics," VRL said in a statement.

In line with the Group's commitment to decarbonizing its operations to achieve net zero targets, Vedanta Limited has constituted an ESG Committee of the Board. Further, Digital First approach is adopted by the Group and we are undertaking various transformation projects to digitize operations and processes to further improve health, safety, environment compliances and risk management, it added.