Visa Steel seeks more land for capacity expansion

Company to scale up capacity to 2.5 mtpa

Visa Steel has sought allotment of additional 675 acres of land adjoining its existing steel plant at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district for expanding capacity of the project.

The company currently has 475 acres of land at the site where it operates 0.55 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant. It needs additional land to ramp up capacity to 2.5 mtpa.

"The capacity expansion will cost us Rs 9000-10,000 crore. We have sought additional 675 acres of land for the purpose. Our memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the state government also needs to be renewed. The MoU lapsed in 2010 and is awaiting renewal”, said a company source.

On allotment of captive iron ore leases, the official said, “We had applied for iron ore leases. But with the state government intending to reserve all balance mineral bearing areas for its own mine PSU- Odisha Mining  Corporation  (OMC) through a resolution, it is unlikely that any other applicant will be granted a lease that is not in either PL (prospecting license) or ML (mining lease) stage.”

Operating without any captive lease, Visa Steel has urged the state government to supply adequate quantity of iron ore and chrome ore at reasonable rates under long-term agreement from OMC.

"Both availability and pricing of ores is a major bottleneck. Standalone miners in the state are making abnormal profits from sale of ore. This is hurting us at a time when we are forced to operate at half of our installed capacity for want of raw material”, he said.

Government records show Visa Steel has already invested Rs 3088.55 crore on its steel project and a 75 Mw captive power plant at Kalinganagar.