Bhubaneswar, The state High Level Clearance Authority, chaired Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, today approved five major industrial projects to the tune of ₹ 1,46,172 crore in metal and metal downstream sectors. These five projects are expected to create employment opportunities for 26,959 persons. Approving these projects, Chief Minister said that all these projects need a big push forward to realize the steel dream of Odisha.
This is in line with Chief Minister’s vision of 2030 for making Odisha the steel hub of India. All these five projects will create an additional steel production capacity of 28 million tons. This will almost double the steel production capacity of the state to 58 million tons, which is currently at 30 million tons per annum. This will help to achieve the goal to produce 100 million tons of steel by 2030. The state has currently a production capacity of 30 million tons, way ahead of a meagre 2 million tons in the year 2000.
It may be noted here the state has been able to attract investments to the tune of ₹ 2.96 Lakh Crore in 2020-21 despite the Covid pandemic. With today’s additional investments the total investments since last year will be ₹ 4.43 Lakh Crore.
The details of the five projects for which in-principle approval was accorded by HLCA is listed below:
● Expansion of Bhushan Power and Steel Limited’s integrated steel plant from 5 million tons per annum to 15 million tons per annum against an investment of ₹ 55,000 crore to be set up in Rengali, Dist – Sambalpur, which will generate potential employment opportunities for over 10,000 persons.
● Expansion of Tata Steel Limited’s Crude steel production from 3 million tons per annum to 8 million tons per annum, Hot rolled coil from 3 million tons per annum to 7 million tons per annum, 2.2 million tons per annum cold-rolled products and 2 million tons per annum long products against an investment of ₹ 47,599 crore to be set up in Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur, which will generate potential employment opportunities for over 4,625 persons.
● Expansion of Jindal Steel and Power Limited’s 6 million tons per annum existing Integrated steel plant from the proposed capacity of 18.6 million tons per annum to 25.2 million tons per annum against an investment of ₹ 24,652 crore to be set up in Angul, which will generate potential employment opportunities for over 1,000 persons. This investment will take JSPL’s total investment to be ₹ 1,00,670 crore, making it the largest single location steel plant capacity in the world.
● Expansion of Rungta Mines Limited’s Integrated Steel Plant from the proposed capacity of 2.85 million tons per annum capacity to 7.55 million tons per annum by adding capacity of 4.7 million tons per annum against an investment of ₹ 11,001 crore to be set up in Jharbandh, District – Dhenkanal, which will generate potential employment opportunities for over 6,200 persons.
● Expansion of Rungta Mines Limited’s Steel Plant capacity from 0.53 million tons per annum to 3 million tons per annum against an investment of ₹ 7,920 crore to be set up in Karakhendra, Keonjhar, which will generate potential employment opportunities for over 5,134 persons.
It may be noted here that several steel and downstream industries are already in various stages of implementation. The approvals granted today are to the leading and reputed investors in the metal sector of the country and will further reinforce Odisha’s position as the top most investment destination in the country.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari, Steel & Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick, RD, Labour & ESI Minister Susant Singh,Industries Minister Divyashankar Mishra , Chief secretary and other senior officers.
