'Mention public investment in infrastructure in National Steel Policy'

The National Steel Policy 2017 must make a special mention of the need of public investments in the steel intensive infrastructure sector to pull up domestic demand up, says an expert.

With the Steel Ministry floating a draft national policy and inviting comments and suggestions, Institute for Steel Development and Growth Director General Sushim Banerjee told IANS that they had urged it "should make a special mention that the government should make public investment in infrastructure and particularly in the steel intensive sectors", so that domestic demand could go up.

The draft policy said it was expected that at the current rate of GDP growth, the steel demand would grow threefold in next 15 years to reach a demand of 212-247 million tonnes by 2030-31.

"We have also suggested that the more details of growth projection should be highlighted in the policy," Banerjee said.

According to draft policy, currently around 40 percent of the steel consumption is from construction and infrastructure sectors which is expected to increase to 59 percent by 2030-31 .

"It is anticipated that a crude steel capacity of 300 million tonne will be required by 2030- 31, based on the demand projections. ...However, achieving crude steel capacity up to 300 MT will require extensive mobilisation of natural resources, finances, manpower and infrastructure including land," it added.

--IANS

bdc/vd