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The decks have been cleared for renewal of lapsed MoUs (memorandum of understandings) of steel players.
To begin with, the state task force on steel has recommended extension of MoUs for a period of two years of 11 steel companies, which includes Tata Steel. While construction work for Tata Steel's six-million-tonne greenfield steel project at Kalinga Nagar is in full swing, the rest of the players — which fall under the small and medium scale— have started partial or full-scale production.
“Based on milestones achieved, the steel task force has recommended renewal of MoUs of 11 players. This is from of a list of 15 steel projects whose field verification has been completed by Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd. The steel & mines department has readied the draft MoUs of the 11 steel companies. Ipicol will take the views of other concerned departments on the MoU renewal for finalization of the drafts. After this, we will take government order,” said steel & mines secretary Rajesh Verma.
The lapsed MoUs of steel majors such as Posco and ArcelorMittal are not under consideration, as these two firms were yet to submit the latest status note on their projects
The MoU renewal process will be done as per the guidelines dated January 15 issued by the steel & mines department.
"No fresh assurance on supply of raw materials shall be given. Mineral concessions already recommended/granted for captive purpose will be exclusively for captive use and no export or swapping of minerals meant for captive use would be permitted,” the guidelines stated.
The guidelines also mentioned on deletion of clauses recommending coal blocks for the steel units citing recent amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) MMDR Act-1957. The Central government has decided that henceforth, all coal blocks will be allocated to entities after competitive bidding.
The state government had signed MoUs with 50 steel firms of which the pact inked with Maharashtra Seamless was scrapped due to unsatisfactory progress in project execution. Of the balance 49 companies, 45 have sought renewal of their lapsed pacts. However, only 30 out of these 45 applicants for MoU renewal had furnished detailed status reports on their projects according to a check list prepared by Ipicol.
