Punjab urges Centre to set up auto shredding plant

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today urged the central government to set up an auto shredding plant at Mandi Gobindgarh, for which his government was ready to allocate land.
In a letter to Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, Amarinder cited an earlier request on the issue by his government on May 30 this year.
Referring to the proposal by Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited (MSTC) to set up auto shredding plants across the country, where condemned diesel and other vehicles would be shredded, the chief minister said Mandi Gobindgarh was ideal for establishing such a plant.
The chief minister said that Mandi Gobindgarh was historically known as the 'steel town of Punjab' and had a number of secondary steel producers.

Currently, steel scrap was being imported as raw material for the steel industry from Kandla Port in Gujarat at a substantial logistics cost, he said, urging the union minister to consider setting up of an auto shredding plant in the city.
The output of such a plant would be optimally utilised as raw material by the steel furnaces installed there, Amarinder said that being centrally located and also the largest steel cluster in the region, the proposed plant could become a central supply point for shredded steel scrap to all the areas across the northern region.