Govt plans to invest in Jagdishpur steel unit

The Centre has planned to invest Rs 10,000 crore to revive the steel unit at Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh and develop it into a modern and state-of-the-art plant.

This was stated by Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Saturday while reviewing the progress of the ongoing revival work of the steel plant, which had been entrusted to Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), with the senior officials, RSP said in a press release.

Verma said the Ministry of Petroleum had been requested for extending support for natural gas resources.

All efforts would be made to speed up the completion of Jagdishpur project, it added. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) had bought the private unit at Jagdishpur, the former plant of Malavika Steel in 2009.

For Phase-II development of the unit, discussions with Kobe Steel of Japan were held by a Joint Task Force.

Options for setting up a 1,000-MW gas based power plant and a steel plant based on gas-based DRI (Direct Reduced Iron-making) technology and using Electric Arc Furnace for steel making with value added products were being examined, RSP sources said.

For reviving the set up, which was not in operation for a long time and to supply value-added finished products to meet the demand of the region.

Two unit, a warehouse with a capacity of 12,000 tonnes per annum and a Galvanised Sheet Corrugation unit of capacity 13,000 tonnes per annum were in final stages of completion and would be ready for commissioning very soon, sources said.

Work for two more units under the current phase, a TMT bar mill of capacity 1,50,000 tonnes per annum and a Crash Barrier manufacturing unit of capacity 10,000 tonnes per annum is progressing as per schedule and shall be completed by November, 2011.

The inputs of GP sheets, Billets and HR sheets for all these facilities will be sourced from the existing plants and units of SAIL.

The finished products will be dispatched through road, the release added.