NMDC Limited, the country’s largest iron ore producer, on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) for installing a 336-km slurry pipeline from Jagdalpur to Visakhapatnam and for setting up a four-million tonne capacity pellet plant at Visakhapatnam. The MoU was signed by NMDC chairman and managing director NK Nanda and AP Choudhary, chairman and managing director of RINL.
NMDC plans to increase its production of iron ore from the Bailadila region to 50 million tonne a year with the expansion of its existing mines and addition of new mines like Deposit -11B, Deposit-13 and Deposit-4.
To increase the evacuation capacity, NMDC is contemplating developing the slurry pipeline project from its mines in Chhattisgarh to feed RINL’s plant at Visakhapatnam and also to the NMDC’s steel plant proposed to be set up at Nagarnar.
The project will strengthen the synergy between RINL and NMDC. At the moment, the Kirandul-to-Kothavalasa (K-K) railway line, which is the lifeline for transportation of iron ore by NMDC to the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and other customers, has reached its capacity for handling iron ore traffic. Hence, it is believed that this project will expect to ease the congestion on K-K railway line.
The slurry pipeline will be the second one to terminate at Visakhapatnam in addition to the existing pipeline of Essar Steel.