SAIL gets positive response from Odisha govt on land allocation request: Chief

State-owned steel maker SAIL has received a positive response from the Odisha government on its request of land allocation to set up a coast-based plant in the state, a top company official said.

As part of its 50-mtpa expansion plan, SAIL is planning to set up a 3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) shore-based plant at an estimated cost of over Rs 15,000 crore in Odisha.

SAIL had written a letter to the Odisha government for land, its chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary said.

"I am happy to inform you that we have received a response from Principal Secretary, Industries. He has invited us. I (have) received invite very recently," he said, replying to a question related to land availability.

A team of officials will be soon sent to Odisha to explore possibility of getting land in coastal area so that the company can set up at least one steel plant in coastal area, the chairman said.

As of now none of SAIL's plant is coast-based.

On whether the company is looking at the land near Paradip, he replied "a lot of land is available in the state".

Korean steel major POSCO was earlier interested in setting up a 12-mtpa plant on over 2,500-acre land at Paradip in Jagatsingpur district of Odisha at an estimated cost of Rs 52,000 crore. However, the company later suspended its plan.

Earlier, a senior official of the Odisha government had told PTI that many big companies have submitted expression of interest (EoI) for the same land.

SAIL is in talks with some Japanese and Korean steel players.

"A delegation had gone to Japan earlier. Officials of steel ministry and SAIl were part of it. There, we discussed whether we can get into some sort of collaboration with Japanese steel making companies so that we are able to get advantage of technology for making advanced steel in our country. And we got the positive response. SAIL is also in talks with some South Korean companies," the chairman had earlier said.

SAIL, under the ministry of steel, is country largest steel producer with annual capacity of over 21 MTPA.