Committed to West Bengal project: JSW Steel

JSW Steel today said it is committed to the Rs 35,000 crore greenfield steel plant in West Bengal, days after it had expressed desire to return 294 acres of farmers' land acquired for the project.
The Sajjan Jindal-led firm said ban on iron ore mining and cancellation of coal mines earmarked for the proposed 10 mtpa plant brought in severe uncertainty to raw material linkages for the project.
"Against this backdrop, financing a capital-intensive green field project will be very challenging. Consequently, the company decided to put the project implementation on hold until raw material linkages for the project are reliably established," the company said in a statement.

At the same time, JSW Steel said it would continue to work with state government "to find alternatives to establish raw material linkages to take up implementation of the steel project in due course".
The company had earlier written to the state government expressing its willingness to give back the 294 acres of land directly purchased from the farmers at free of cost.
Though the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had described it as a "bold" move, the company's decision to hand over the purchased land had put a question mark on the future of the project.
The total land in possession of JSW Steel for the project was 4,300 acres out of which 294 acres was purchased from the farmers. The MoU for setting up 10 mtpa steel project at Salboni area in West Midnapore was signed in 2007.