While allotting the land for a period of 90 years with a value of Rs 19.40 crore, Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco) laid down certain conditions for the company.
"The allottee shall have to start civil construction in the land within six months and commercial production within two years from the date of taking possession. Financial closure of the project shall be made within one year from the date of allotment of land," Idco said in the allotment letter.
Initially, the total land required for the project was estimated at 155 ha. While Rugta had possession of nearly 47 ha area, it had requested Idco to acquire 102 ha more on behalf of it. However, after reviewing the land need for the expansion of the integrated steel project, Idco allotted additional 75 ha area to the firm this month.
In 2005, the mining major had announced plans to develop one million tonne integrated steel plant each in Sundergarh and Dhenkanal district with combined investment of Rs 2200 crore, taking advantage of huge captive mine leases under its name. The Sundergarh project was an expansion plan while Jharbandh plant in Dhenkanal was a greenfield project.
The mining firm initially proposed to expand its 0.20 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant at Kamanda in Sundergarh to 0.6 mtpa, but later decided to ramp up its capacity to one million tonne a year with an estimated expenditure of Rs 1052 crore.
Apart from the steel plant, Rungta also plans to develop an iron ore pelletisation plant in Keonjhar district after the state government introduced a policy in 2012 of not to renew mining leases of those who do not have any end-use plant in the state. In December 2013, the firm got nod of village council to set up its 4 MTPA pellet plant in Keonjhar.
--EOM--
