Little progress is made on the proposal to set up ultra mega steel plants as land acquisition and allocation of iron ore mines remain big problem areas, a government official said here today.
“Land acquisition is the biggest problem, State Governments are non-committal on the issue. Allocation of captive mines are another big issue, So there is no progress... as of now, it (the proposal) is not moving,” a senior Steel Ministry official told PTI.
On the lines of ultra mega power plants, the Steel Ministry had floated the proposal last year for big steel plants with 10 million tonnes (MT) capacity each at total investment of Rs 50,000 crore.
The States, particularly Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh that have abundant iron ore reserves, were not willing to give assurances for the ambitious plan as they feel the proposed plants would be “resource guzzlers” for ore, water, coking coal and power, the official said.