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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Jindals' Salboni project faces iron ore crisis

Sat,Oct29,2011 |TNN

KOLKATA: Supply crunch of iron ore has cast a shadow on Bengal's showpiece project - Sajjan Jindal's integrated steel and power plant at Salboni in West Midnapore.

JSW officials have informally requested the state to help them procure iron ore from National Mineral Development Corporation's mines in Orissa and Jharkhand. JSW Bengal got three coal blocks in state dispensation route, Kulti, Ichapur and Sitarampur in Raniganj belt and the estimated combined reserve is over 600 million tonne.

Incidentally, the project is also facing land hurdle as mutation for the entire land (4,334 acres) is still pending. The company officials would meet state industries minister Partha Chatterjee and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) managing director Nandini Chakraborty on Saturday where the issue is likely to be discussed.

However, the only silver lining is that NMDC has not ruled out the possibility of limited iron ore linkage for the project. JSW Group is now planning to set up a 3 million tonne steel plant and a 300 MW power plant with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore in the first phase. NMDC chairman and MD, Rana Som, told TOI that it has got a couple of mines in Orissa where the production is not fully tied up. It has also got prospecting license for a big mine in Jharkhand. "There is no request so far from JSW for its Bengal project. We are supplying iron ore to other JSW projects," he added.

It's not only the JSW Group alone. Several other steel firms across the country have been facing iron ore shortage for the last few months. The Vijaynagar plant of JSW Steel is running at less than 50% of installed capacity of 10 million tonne.

Incidentally, WBIDC had sought clarification from JSW Bengal Steel regarding issues relating to the size of Salboni project for sourcing iron ore in September. JSW Group had given a reply to that letter

a couple of days ago. There were indications that WBIDC would start processing necessary clearances for Salboni project once it receives the clarifications. However, sources added that some grey areas still remained even after the reply.

JSW made this request to the state after the WBIDC asked it to specify how it would source iron ore and location of handling and

whether it is planning to set up any pallet plant in Bengal. It has also raised question about the location of the power plant proposed by JSW Bengal Steel. "The power plant was originally planned in Andal. As per the the approved feasibility report, the capacity of the Salboni project would be 6 million ton. The Expert Committee of Steel of the state government approved this quantity earlier," a source said.

(sourced TOI)

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