The scheduled visit of the Union Steel and Mines Secretaries to Odisha on Monday for a review meeting here assumes great significance at a time when the major steel projects in the State are facing various bottlenecks and the steel sector is haunted by fears of a crisis in raw material supply following a possible ban on mining by the Supreme Court.
The meeting at the State Secretariat would review the progress of the pending steel projects, including Posco. The meeting to be chaired by Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra would discuss ways and means of addressing the impediments relating to land acquisition, supply of raw material and construction work of the steel projects.According to an official of the State’s Steel and Mines Department, issues relating to mining, forest clearances, renewal of mining leases, long-term raw material linkages, e-auction of iron ore, environmental and other statutory clearances would figure at the meeting. More particularly, the meeting is likely to discuss the fallouts of a possible ban on mining activities since it would affect the entire steel sector in the State as well as in the country.
While the meeting would review the progress of public-sector undertakings like the SAIl and Nalco, issues relating to private companies such as Posco, Tata Steel, Bhushan Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, Essar Steel, Monnet Ispat Energy, Visa Steel and Jindal Stainless would also be discussed.Meanwhile, a number of projects have been delayed due to the pending statutory approvals, non-availability of raw material linkages, issues related to land acquisition and law and order problems.The Union Steel Ministry has identified eight projects in Odisha which are suffering from inordinate delay. They are Posco, Tata Steel, Essar Steel, Visa Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, Uttam Galva Steel, Monnet Ispat & Energy and Amtek Metal & Mining.
The Posco has proposed a 12-million tonne per annum (mtpa) project near Paradip on 4,004 acres of land. The South Korean company needed 2,700 acres of land for the first phase to build an eight-mtpa plant. Though the Government has acquired the land, it is yet to hand over the entire stretch to the company. Also, the extension of the MoU between the company and the State Government, which lapsed in June 2010, is still pending.
As for the Tata Steel’s six-mtpa plant coming up at Kalinganagar, renewal of the existing mining leases and grant of fresh leases are pending at the State Government level.The JSPl is also awaiting allocation of captive iron ore mines for its six-mtpa integrated plant near Angul.