Steel ministry seeks iron ore mines in UP for RINL

Union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma today urged the Uttar Pradesh government to expedite leasing of iron ore mines in Lalitpur district of Bundelkhand region to Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).

“We are confident that the state government would soon take positive step in this direction,” Verma said here.

RINL had already applied for the lease of iron ore mines in Lalitpur district for setting up a pellet unit in the region. Nigam chairman and managing director A P Chaudhary said the plant would provide direct employment to about 500 locals.

Meanwhile, the union minister said state-run RINL and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) were aggressively setting up rural dealerships in India to boost per capital steel consumption.

So far, RINL and SAIL had set up 538 and 440 rural dealerships respectively and plan to up the number to 1,000 each in near future.

The domestic rural steel market of India is expected to burgeon and the rural dealerships would play a vital role in expanding the steel consumption in remote areas, Verma added.

Meanwhile, RINL plans steep processing units (SPU) in Ambedkar Nagar and Ghaziabad districts of UP. It is also establishing rural stockyards, including one in Varanasi.

Verma said SPUs are being set up in states, where there are no big steel plants to boost local availability of steel products and generating employment.

RINL had clocked 21% growth in the sale of steel products in UP during 2011-12 compared to the previous year.

India, the world’s fourth largest steel producer, is targetting steel production capacity of 200 million tonnes (MT) by 2020 from the current about 80 MT. At present, China is the global leader in steel production followed by USA, Russia and India.