JSW Ltd is awaiting “minor changes” in its agreement with the West Bengal government before kick-starting construction at its 600 MW power plant at Salboni in the West Midnapore district of the State.

According to Biswadip Gupta, Regional Director, Bengal Projects, JSW Ltd, the proposed power plant, including coal linkages, will come up at an estimated cost of ₹5,000 crore.

Cost of Phase 1 This apart, the company will also spend another ₹15,000 crore in setting up the first phase of its steel plant having a per annum capacity of three million tonnes (mt).

The second and third phases will see a capacity addition of six mt of steel and around 900 MW of power (300 MW and 600 MW) at an estimated cost of ₹20,000 crore.

“We will start work as soon as the changes in the agreements are made,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Manufacturing Conclave, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Initially, the Jindals had proposed the setting up a three mt steel plant with a captive power plant of 300 MW in the first phase. This was to be followed up by a phase-wise capacity addition of another seven mt of steel and two more 600 MW power plants.

Changes According to him, one of the changes involves tweaking the status of the power project to “captive or independent power project (IPP)”from captive.

The second change will be to tweak the coal linkage agreements so that JSW can use the captive coal mines – two in Raigung and one in Durgapur – for generating power.

“The status of the power plant has to be changed from captive only to captive or independent. The agreements for coal linkages are to be tweaked accordingly too,” Gupta said.

The company is also awaiting iron-ore linkages before it begins work on the steel plant at Salboni.