"The company expects to start its construction work on the 4-million tonne steel project before the onset of the monsoon. It has already deposited requisite administrative charges with the Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) of Orissa to acquire required land," Bikram Mohanty, general manager (corporate affairs) of Essar, said today.
"The land acquisition process is going on very well with adequate support from IDCO and district administration of Jagatsinghpur. The project using blast furnace route is expected to be commissioned in five years," Mohanty said.
According to an official statement by Essar, the proposed plant with state-of-the art technlogy would be set up in the port town of Paradip, for which the company had already identified over 2,000 acres near the erstwhile Oswal fertiliser plant.
The top management of the Orissa project had recently met Orissa's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and urged him to expedite the land acquisition process, industry sources said.
