nThe Union Cabinet on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave ‘in-principle’ approval to the demerger of the Nagarnar Steel Plant (NSP) in Chhattisgarh from the National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC) Ltd.
The Steel Plant has a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum and is nearly 90 percent complete. It will be registered as a separate company, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told a press briefing on Wednesday.
He said the demerger will be completed by April and disinvestment will be done by September 2021. The interests of 30 percent minority stakeholders will be protected.
NMDC had set up the Integrated Steel Plant at Nagarnar, Bastar district, in an area of 1,980 acres with a revised estimated cost of Rs 23,140 crores.
As on date NMDC has invested Rs 17,186 crore on the project, out of which Rs 16,662 crore is from NMDC’s own funds and Rs 524 crore has been raised from the bond market.
With the approval, CCEA has amended its earlier decision taken on October 27, 2016 to disinvest the Nagarnar Steel Plant as a unit of NMDC.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in August 2020 wrote to Modi urging him to reconsider the decision on disinvestment of the Nagarnar Steel Plant.
Taran Sinha, Commissioner, Public Relations, Chhattisgarh, told ‘The Pioneer’ that the state government is studying the cabinet decision and its impact.