All-party meet in sept for bhushan steel project

The West Bengal government will call an all-party meet in the middle of September to kick start the land acquisition project.

“All parties and local people will be called to discuss the project in the presence of Bhushan Steel officials,” a company official said. The meeting will be called by the district magistrate of Bardhaman, following which notifications for acquisition will be issued under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.

Bhushan Steel would require 2,550 acres for its six million tonne steel project, of which 370 acres has been realigned. There are about 1,300 land losers.

The state government took up acquisition of land for the project after Bhushan wrote a letter setting a deadline for the Rs 28,000 crore project. The memorandum of understanding for the project was signed in 2007. Bhushan is also in discussions with the Karnataka government for a similar size plant and had the state government not taken up the land acquisition, it would have lost yet another project.

Bhushan Steel’s Bengal project was delayed as Coal India raised objections to having industrial projects in the coal belt of Asansol-Durgapur in the Bardhaman district, though it was not part of its licensed area. Two other steel projects—Videocon and Abhijit group—have landed up in the same boat.

Bhushan would be partnered by Sumitomo of Japan. “Sumitomo was keen on partnering Bhushan irrespective of the location,” said the official.

Once the notification is done for the land acquisition, Bhushan would step up discussions with Sumitomo. Bhushan had initially shown interest in setting up a two million tonne, which was trebled last year.

Bhushan has a second project—a cold rolling mill—at Sankrail, which, however, has been scaled down. The original investment planned was close to Rs 1,000 crore, but now the company plans to invest half of that as the product-mix has been changed.