Odisha approves JSW Steel's $7.8 billion steel plant

BHUBANESHWAR, India (Reuters) - Odisha said on Friday it had approved a plan by JSW Steel to set up a 10 million tonnes a year steel plant costing about 500 billion rupees ($7.8 billion).

JSW, which is India's biggest steelmaker by capacity and produces 18 million tonnes a year, has sought 4,500 acres of land which were earlier allotted to South Korea's Posco, Odisha state-chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi told Reuters.

"We will evaluate the exact amount of land required for the project and give them the land," Padhi said, adding the project is likely to be built in four years.

The government of the state in the east of India has also approved JSW's plan to lay a slurry pipeline linked to the plant.

JSW would submit expressions of interest for two iron ore mines in Odisha, its Joint Managing Director Seshagiri Rao had said in April.

($1 = 64.4150 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Jatindra Dash; editing by Alexander Smith)