JSW Steel to set up port in Orissa

at Rs 2,000 cr investment

Addressing the media, Sajjan Jindal, vice chairman and managing director, JSW Steel said, a place near Bhadrak district had been identified and it was right outside the border of West Bengal. The earlier plan was to participate in Bengal's proposed deep sea port project.

However, Jindal said, Digha in East Medinipur of West Bengal had been identified but it was prone to cyclones.
 
The proposed port in Orissa would have an initial capacity of 25-30 million tonnes and would take 3-4 years to execute the project. The port would handle large vessels and carry out dredging to increase the draft to 18.5 metres and would be executed by group company, JSW Infrastructure & Logistics.

The port would support import of raw materials and export of finished goods of the 10 million steel plants in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Jindal said, for the Bengal project, the company had entered into long-term contracts for iron ore fines in Orissa and Jharkhand.

Drilling for coal mines in Bengal was going on. However, the blocks have a depth of one kilometers and JSW would enter into technical tie-ups with German and Ukrainian companies for the purpose.

The investment in the coal mines would be to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore and it would ready for mining in 2011-12.

The groundbreaking for the project would after the festive season. In the first phase, capacity would be three million tonnes, which was lower than the earlier plan of six million tonnes in the first phase. The total capacity of the plant would be 10 million tonnes in two phases.

Jindal said, financial closure for the first phase of the project had been achieved.

Jindal was also interested in investing in power projects in West Bengal. He said, the group had lined up 11,000 MW of power projects and in Bengal it could look at 4,000-5,000 MW capacity.

Jindal also believed that with the Jharkhand rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy in place, there would some progress in its proposed plant in the state.