| In what could be seen as a step towards an out-of-court settlement on the much coveted Chiria mines, leased to Steel Authority of India (SAIL), the steel major and the Jharkhand government have decided to appeal to the Jharkhand High Court to postpone hearing in the case.
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| S Satapathy, Jharkhand industry secretary, said the hearing was scheduled for this month, but would be pushed back to the end of the next month.
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| SAIL officials were not available for comment.
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| A core group has been formed, headed by the mining secretary and the SAIL chairman and Jharkhand government representatives are members.
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| The scope of the group will be to determine the requirements of SAIL for the next 50 years.
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| Satapathy said the report would be submitted by March 15 and the group would get back to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
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| Chiria has been one of the most contentious issues and held up most of the steel projects in Jharkhand. Many of the steel companies — domestic and foreign — are eyeing Chiria, Mittal Steel being one of them.
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| The private sector companies are eyeing two of the Chiria leases, which are under litigation in the high court, as they were cancelled by the state government.
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| Mittal’s proposed 12-million tonne steel plant in the state requires 600 million tonne of iron ore over a 30-year period. The project will be set up in two phases with a total investment of Rs 40,000 crore.
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| The MoU with the Jharkhand government was signed in October 2005, but the project had not made much headway due to lack of clarity on mines and Mittal Steel ruled out setting up the plant in the state without Chiria.
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| Satapathy said Mittal Steel wanted to put its project in Jharkhand on fast track. Chiria’s importance lies in the fact that it is one of the few known deposits in Jharkhand, though not fully explored. Of the 3.7 billion tonne proven reserves in Jharkhand, Chiria accounts for 2 billion tonne. |
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