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The Sajjan Jindal-controlled JSW Steel’s proposed 10 million tonne a year project in West Bengal might get “delayed” due to issues pertaining to securing long-term iron ore supplies.
The company’s Rs 35,000-crore integrated steel and power plant at Salboni in the State hit a roadblock due to the ban on iron ore mining in Odisha.
According to Biswadip Gupta, Managing Director of JSW Bengal, it might be difficult for the company to achieve financial closure for the project unless issues pertaining to supply of ore was resolved.
There were already issues pertaining to iron ore linkages across the country, Gupta said. “In addition to this, the Odisha Government’s (with whom we had a tie-up for iron ore for our Bengal project) recent announcement asking miners to supply half of their mined ore for value addition in Odisha has further affected the project,” he added.
The company, however, is in talks with Odisha , the Cabinet Committee on Investment and the Prime Minister to resolve the issue soon, he said.
“There might be some delay but the project is on. We have already invested over Rs 1,000 crore on this project and people are already working at the plant site,” Gupta said.
The project, if implemented, will be the first major investment under the Mamata Banerjee-led Government in the State. In the first phase, the company had plans to build a three-million-tonne steel plant coupled with 300-MW captive power plant at an estimated investment of Rs 20,000 crore.
PM intimated
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Government has already written to the Prime Minister seeking a national policy on iron ore to resolve the raw material problem, State Commerce and Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee told Business Line on Sunday.
“We have cleared all hurdles pertaining to land and handed over the final draft of the lease agreement. We have also allocated two coal blocks. We are doing whatever we can from our end to ensure that the project comes up but this (the issue of iron ore) is not our subject. We have therefore written to the Prime Minister requesting him to look into this,” Chatterjee said.
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