MoU signed companies generate 27,690 jobs

Steel companies that have entered into memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government have generated direct employment for 27,690 people.

Of this 19,304 jobs have gone to persons within the state with the balance 8,386 jobs going to the outsiders, steel & mines minister Rajani Kant Singh informed the state assembly.

The employment generation has been mostly driven by 30 steel units in small & medium scale that have gone into partial or full scale production while big ticket projects struggle to procure land for their mega projects.

Besides Essar Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, Bhushan Steel and Jindal Stainless, none of the mega steel players has made any substantial impact on employment front.

Together, the 50 steel plants that have signed MoUs with the state government, have achieved steelmaking capacity of 12.66 million tonne per annum (mtpa). These steel makers have invested Rs 80,516.17 crore till March 2012.The operational steel units have also achieved captive power plant (CPP) capacity of 1,517 MW.

The steel firms have paid Rs 1,462.86 crore to the state government and Rs 4,903.82 crore (as on March 31, 2012) by way of taxes. An amount of Rs 187.20 crore has also been spent by these companies on peripheral development.

Among the 30 firms that have started production, Bhushan Power & Steel is the biggest investor with an investment of Rs 22,290 crore. It has achieved steel capacity of 1.5 mtpa, sponge iron capacity of 1.5 mtpa and CPP of 116 MW at its plant at Lapanga near Sambalpur.

It is followed by Bhushan Steel that has grounded an investment of Rs 14,000 crore, clocking steel production of 4.5 mtpa and sponge iron output of 2.38 mtpa at Meramandali in Dhenkanal district.

Other major steel investors include Jindal Steel & Power (Rs 11,392.98 crore), JSL Ltd (Rs 6,367 crore), Essar Steel (Rs 5,700 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 3,970 crore) and Visa Steel (Rs 2,808 crore). Posco India and ArcelorMittal, the two big ticket investors that have proposed 12 million tonne per annum steel plants, have invested Rs 300.08 crore and Rs 70.96 crore respectively.

The state government had signed MoUs with 50 players with a combined steelmaking capacity of 83.66 million tonnes and total envisaged investment of Rs 2.3 lakh crore.