Uncertainty of raw material linkages has prompted JSW Steel to put on hold its proposed Rs.35,000 crore integrated steel, power and cement project in Salboni in West Bengal's West Midnapore district, group CMD Sajjan Jindal said Monday.
"The project is put on hold as it is difficult to go ahead when there are constraints about both the raw materials, iron ore and coal," Jindal said here on the sidelines of inauguration of Ispat Pragati Bhavan of Insdag.
Presently JSW Bengal does not have either coal or iron-ore linkages for the Salboni project following the Supreme Court's cancellation of the three coal blocks; two from the non-coking category and one from the coking category previously allotted to it.
Jindal said if the three coal mines in Gouringdih (Bengal) are put on auction, the company will take up the bidding through the state dispensation route.
JSW Bengal has already invested Rs.700 crore for the project, bagged in 2007 when the Left Front was in power, but now decided to stall it as it made little financial sense, specially after the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government terminated its agreement with JSW Bengal to purchase power to the tune of 60 percent for state utilities.
According to the agreement, the coking coal mine was allotted for the steel plant while the two non-coking coal blocks were selected for the captive power plant.
