JSPL's plate mill to be operational by August

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), which is setting up a six million tonne per annum (mtpa) greenfield steel plant at Angul, expects its plate mill to be operational by August this year.

“Work is progressing very well at the site our proposed steel plant at Angul and we are getting good support of the locals. We expect the plate mill to be operational by August this year. This plate mill having a width of six metres will be the highest plate mill for any steel plant in the country”, Naveen Jindal, vice chairman and managing director, JSPL told reporters after emerging out of a meeting with the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

JSPL will also be setting up a downstream industrial park at the site of its steel project that will be creating employment opportunities for 20,000-25,000 people through the ancillary units, he informed.

The company also has plans to ramp up the steel capacity of its Angul steel plant from six mtpa to 20 mtpa by 2020.

“By 2020, JSPL would be investing around Rs 120,000 crore making it the biggest investor in Orissa. Apart from steel plant, captive power plant, downstream industrial park and Coal to Liquid (CTL) project, we will be setting up a power training institute, a medical college and vocational training institute. The medical college is expected to be functional within five years”, said Jindal.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for the CTL project will be signed shortly, he stated, adding, the CTL project will be meeting the country's strategic requirement and more and more locals will be absorbed in the project. The CTL project had recently got the nod of the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) chaired by the state chief minister.

The CTL project is being taken up at a cost of Rs 60,000 crore and it will have a refining capacity of four mtpa and an oil production capacity of 80,000 barrels per day.

The project would require 5541 acres of land and generate direct as well as indirect employment for 32,000 people. The Government of India has allocated the Ramchandi coal block in Orissa under the command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) for the project. The CTL project needs around 30 million tonnes of washed coal every day.

Together, all projects of JSPL would generate jobs for over 80,000 people.