The Steel Minister, Mr Beni Prasad Verma, will leave for Russia tomorrow to attend an ‘implementation understanding’ signing ceremony between NMDC and Severstal to set up a three-million-tonne a year steel plant in Karnataka.

India’s largest iron ore miner NMDC and Russia’s second biggest steel maker Severstal had in December last year signed an MoU to form an equal joint venture for setting up a steel plant in the southern state.

“The Minister will leave for Moscow tomorrow to attend the implementation understanding signing ceremony between the two firms. This will take place on November 10,” a Ministry official said. Mr Verma would come back to India on November 12.

NMDC Chairman, Mr Rana Som, and his counterpart in Severstal would sign the agreement in the presence of Mr Verma.

This would be Mr Verma’s first overseas trip after assuming charge as steel minister. He took over as the Minister of State for Steel in January this year and was later elevated to the Cabinet rank.

The NMDC-Severstal joint venture intends to set up a coking coal mining subsidiary in Russia and an iron ore mining subsidiary in India to ensure long-term raw material supply to the proposed steel plant.

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