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The Rs 20,000 crore power & steel project by Videocon Group in West Bengal is likely to be revived as group chairman Venugopal Dhoot is scheduled to meet West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee tomorrow.
The project has been stuck and could not gain momentum owing to land acquisition and coal linkages. “We are hopeful of starting the project by October this year. I will be meeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee tomorrow to discuss the issues,” said Dhoot.
He further added that, “In fact the delay in the project suits our plan as the steel industry is not in a good shape.” There were speculations that the consumer electronics major might relocate the project amid land acquisition hurdles. The minimum land requirement for the project is about 1,800-2,000 acres.
The company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the former Left Front government for setting up the 3-million-tonne integrated steel plant and a 1,200-megawatt power plant in October 2007. While there were issues related to coal linkage, Coal India Ltd, the state-run coal miner, had also raised objections stating that the project area in Jamuria has coal reserves.
