The government had deferred the proposal for strategic divestment of NMDC's under-construction Nagarnar steel plant in Chhattisgarh until the unit becomes operational, the PSU said.
NMDC CMD N Baijendra Kumar told PTI that the inter-ministerial group for divestment has decided to put the sale of the Nagarnar steel plant on hold.
According to company sources, the state government, local political parties and trade unions were against the selling of the steel plant to private parties.
The company last year had announced that the process for strategic divestment of NMDC's Nagarnar plant had started.
The steel plant was in the list of public sector enterprises lined up by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) for strategic divestment.
The government has fixed a disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore for the ongoing fiscal.
Strategic disinvestment denotes the sale of a substantial portion of government shareholding in an identified central public sector enterprise (CPSE), up to 50 per cent or more, along with the transfer of management control.
NMDC in its annual report 2017-18 said, "The Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CGD) in its meeting...considered and concurred with the proposal of Ministry of Steel as regards deferment of the proposal of Strategic Disinvestment till the plant becomes operational. IMG noted the recommendations of CGD."
The country's largest iron ore miner is setting up a three million tonnes per annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant in Nagarnar in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.
The PSU further said in its annual report that at present, progress of civil work, structural and equipment erection of Nagarnar plant is in an advanced stage and is progressing in full swing.
"The progress of construction activities of the steel plant in the year 2017-18 is noticeable in various fronts," it said.
The capex achievement with regard to steel plant during the financial year 2017-18 is Rs 1,809 crore, the PSU said, and so far, expenditure incurred for construction of steel plant is about Rs 13,875 crore.
"The value of work awarded during the financial year 2017-18 was Rs 280 crore," it added.
The steel plant project is getting ready for its commissioning of various units progressively, for which operational power supply system is already energized during the first week of March 2018, it said.
"In order to facilitate the commissioning activities of the steel plant, procurement action for initial requirement of various raw materials, spares, consumables, etc, are also under process. NMDC will put its all efforts to roll the first HR coil by March 2019," it added.
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