NMDC to start work on Bastar steel plant in Oct

The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) will start the construction work for its 3-million tonnes per annum (mtpa) integrated steel plant in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh in October this year.

"The company has started the process of tendering and the work on the project will start in October this year," NMDC Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) Rana Som said at a meeting with the senior officials of Bastar division in Jagdalpur.

The integrated steel plant of the country's biggest iron ore producer and exporter will come up near Nagarnaar, about 20 km from the divisional headquarters of Bastar. The company plans to invest about Rs 12,000 crore on the project.

The then Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers and Steel, Ram Vilas Paswan and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh laid the foundation stone for the proposed steel plant in September 2008. The state government had acquired 403 hectares of land for the company in early 1990's.

The NMDC had earlier said that construction work would be completed within 36 months and commercial production was expected to start by August 2011. Som said it would take another 40 months to complete the work and start the commercial production. The drawing and designing work had been completed, he added.

He said that the company would be using the most modern technology to set up the plant. The iron ore would be supplied from the company's mechanised mines in Bacheli-Kirandul of Dantewada district. The company would be setting up a second rail line of about 100 km between Jagdalpur and Bacheli to facilitate shipment of raw material, Rana said.

The steel plant is expected to create about 12,000 indirect and direct employment in the tribal-dominated pocket of the state.