The company requires about 7750 acres of land for its Keonjhar plant, out of which about 10 percent is forest land. It has sought 6000 acres for the plant, 1000 acres for power plant and 750 acres for the township.
"The forest land will be about 10 percent of the total land requirement and we are working on preparing a forest diversion plan for the Orissa plant, Sanak Mishra, the chief executive officer (CEO), ArcelorMittal India said.
Talking to media persons after apprising the union steel secretary R S Pandey regarding the progress of the Keonjhar plant, he said, the detail project report (DPR)of this integrated steel project is prepared by MN Dastur & Company (P) Limited (Dasturco) and a 20 member expert team of the company is assisting it.
DPR is being finalised and will be submitted by 30 June, 2008 as was originally scheduled at the time of the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU)."It will be a top class DPR", Mishra added.
About the progress of land acquisition he said, though the physical acquisition of land has not started, the company is moving step by step in this matter.It has submitted the land schedule document to the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and the agency has sent it to the district administration.The Gram sabha is likely to meet very soon to discuss about the land acquisition, he said.
The ArcelorMittal India CEO said, the company raised the issue of iron ore linkage with the union steel secretary and the Union and the state government has assured the company of giving due weightage to its demands. It is in discussion with the state government but has not applied for the mines.
" We wanted to know the areas that are in the mind of the government to give us prospecting license (PL) ", he pointed out
Regarding the proposed state of the art ITI to be set up by the company adjacent to its Keonjhar plant, Mishra said, the district collector has alloted 10 acres of land for setting up the ITI.
Asked about the water supply to the Keonjhar plant, Mishra said, water requirement of the company has been assessed and it will be made available. A study was conducted by hydrological experts which suggested that water will be available from river Baitarani.
Only a few weeks back the company announced its plans to spend $300 million (about Rs 1200 crore )on rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) for its Keonjhar plant.
