Ipicol starts field survey of MoU signed projects

The physical verification will continue till April 15 included projects proposed by 30 steel firms and seven independent power producers

Three inter-departmental teams formed by Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol) to oversee progress of steel and power projects at the ground level have started field verification from Thursday.

The physical verification that will continue till April 15 included projects proposed by 30 steel companies and seven independent power producers (IPPs) whose renewal of MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with the state government is pending for disposal.

The field verification is important as stock taking of physical progress of the projects is going to be the key criteria for extending the validity of the expired MoUs.

"The teams will submit reports to Ipicol within a week of completing field verification. Ipicol, in turn, will present these reports before the task forces on steel and power," said G Mathi Vathanan, chairman of Ipicol.

Each of the teams has six members with representation from departments of steel & mines, industries, revenue and forest & environment as well as Mecon Ltd, State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) and Ipicol.

The steel projects whose ground level progress will be assessed are Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless Ltd, Visa Steel, Essar Steel, Brahmani River Pellets Ltd (BRPL), Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) and Aarti Steels to name a few.

Among the IPPs, the teams will take stock of progress of Maa Durga Thermal Power Ltd, KVK Nilachal Power Ltd, Lanco Babandh Power Ltd, GMR Kamalanga Energy Ltd, Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd, JSPL's IPP and Ind-Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd.

The state government had signed MoUs with 50 steel firms of which the pact inked with Maharashtra Seamless was scrapped due to unsatisfactory progress in project execution. Of the balance 49 companies, 45 have sought renewal of their lapsed pacts. But only 30 out of these 45 applicants had furnished detailed status reports on their projects according to a check list prepared by Ipicol.

On January 15 this year, the steel & mines department had issued guidelines for extending lapsed MoUs wherein it had ruled out guaranting supply of raw materials for the industries.

"No fresh assurance on supply of raw materials shall be given. Mineral concessions already recommended/granted for captive purpose will be exclusively for captive use and no export or swapping of minerals meant for captive use would be permitted," the guidelines stated.

The guidelines also declined to recommend coal blocks for the steel units citing recent amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) MMDR Act-1957. The Central government has decided that henceforth, all coal blocks will be allocated to entities after competitive bidding.