Unfazed by the recent developments in West Bengal over the small car project of the Tatas, JSW Steel today made it clear that its Rs 35,000-crore steel project in Shalboni was on schedule and construction work for the plant would start in November.
"Our steel project in West Bengal is on schedule and we will commence construction work of the project from November this year," JSW Steel Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal said here.
JSW Steel is setting up a 10 million tonne integrated steel plant at Shalboni in West Bengal. The company has already acquired 4,800 acre land.
He, however, said if the Tatas pull out of the small car project from Singur, it would send a wrong signal to the industry as a whole but at the same time, expressed hope that project would take off at Singur.
Tata Group patriarch Ratan Tata had recently said that if the controversy over land acquisition continues, Tatas may pull out of the project.
JSW Steel expects to commission an eight million tonne per annum iron ore beneficiation unit and six million tonne per annum pellet plant in West Bengal by 2012 before the steel production starts.
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JSW Steel plans to produce 32 million tonnes of steel by 2020, with an investment of Rs 1,000,000 crore. Apart from putting up a plant in West Bengal, the company has plans to set up a Greenfield plant, too, in Jharkhand and increasing the Vijaynagar plant capacity to 10 million tonnes per annum.
Jindal said the company would upgrade a local ITI, where students from the area would be trained before getting employed.