Ask Essar Group about it.
It has gone back to the drawing board to secure raw materials from the region.
Bothered by the constant Maoist threat to its Kirandul-Vizag slurry pipeline, group flagship Essar Steel is being forced to have a rethink on the route, putting at risk the Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) pumped into it.
Essar Steel runs an eight million tonne per annum pellet plant in Visakhapatnam and a benefication plant in Kirandul.
The 267-km Kirandul-Vizag slurry pipeline -- the longest in the country -- originates in the iron ore-rich area of Balaidila in Chhattisgarh and runs through Maoist territory.
In March 2010 and then as recently as last October, the pipeline was damaged after Maoists blew it up.
These attacks crippled Essar Steel's operations, as the pellet plant in Vizag was shut after ore supply was disrupted.
The company sources ore from NMDC for its benefication plan in Kirandul and pumps it through the pipeline to the pellet plant in Vizag on the east coast.
There, the beneficiated iron ore is converted into pellets, which are then loaded on to ships and sent to its Hazira Steel Complex all the way to the west coast of Gujarat.
These pellets are then fed into the blast furnace to make steel.
The company is now keen to re-route it altogether, making the journey even longer.
"The current route of the slurry pipeline was chosen because even at 267 km, it was the shortest distance between Kirandul and Vizag. If we go along
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