Iron ore linkages have cast a shadow on JSW Steel’s proposed 10 million steel plant at Salboni in West Medinipur.
“The company is facing ore linkage problems. They will have to sort it out with the Centre,” West Bengal commerce and industry minister, Partha Chatterjee, said.
JSW Steel, which has delayed the steel project by more than three years, is now seeking Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee’s intervention to resolve the issue. While JSW Steel has been allotted coking and non-coking coal mines in West Bengal, the state has no iron ore mines.
The steel major had planned to enter into contract with private miners for iron ore fines, but with the Orissa government coming down heavily on miners, the strategy does not seem to be working. Moreover, the clampdown in Karnataka has put the Bellary iron ore out of bounds as well. With Banerjee’s help, JSW would be in a position to enter into long-term contracts with mining PSUs.
“We have already invested about Rs 600 crore in West Bengal. We are waiting for some change in policies,” JSW Steel vice chairman and managing director, Sajjan Jindal, who was in the city to attend Bengal Leads, said.
JSW Steel’s Salboni project had run into several hurdles in the last six months. The new state government has vested the land directly purchased by JSW Steel with it, since it believed that the company had violated rules under the Land Reforms Act, for not seeking prior exemption under 14Y. The Land Reforms Act of 1955 places a ceiling of 25 acres on land acquisition while Section 14Y exempts the ceiling in four cases: mill, factory, workshop and tea gardens.
JSW Steel, which entered into a development agreement with the West Bengal government in 2007, did not have a lease deed till recently. The company got permissible possession of the land from the erstwhile government.
Last week, however, the company signed a lease agreement for 3,800 acres, which was under the land reforms department. But the agreement with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) for 189 acres, which was scattered across the land, was yet to be signed. WBIDC is seeking a timeline from the company for the project.
“They will now start work on a 250-bed hospital at Salboni,” Chatterjee said.
