Jindal to set up steel plant in Himachal Pradesh

Jindal Steel is hunting for land in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district to set up a Rs 3,000-crore steel plant, officials said.

Sources said Rajiv Sehgal, a top official of Jindal Steel met top state industries department officials over the weekend.

The company is looking for over 400 bigha land at Kala Amb, Poanta Sahib or Dhaula Kuan industrial areas of Sirmaur.

"As soon as the company is able to find suitable land, work would start to set up the steel plant," said Gopal Sharma, a state industries department official.

Officials said the company had applied some two years, to the state industries department single window clearance, for setting up a plant in the state but for some reason the process was delayed until last week when the company decided to set up the plant.

Since tax holiday began in early 2003, some four years ago, the state has attracted a proposed investment of Rs 23,000 crore from over 7,000 small, medium and large industrial units from across the country who have been largely attracted by the excise package of the Central government which will expire in 2010.