Orissa set up JWG to speed up Arcelor-Mittal mega steel project

Bhubaneswar, Jul 11 (UNI) To speed up the proposal for a 12 million tonne steel plant as indicated by Arcelor-Mittal Chairman L.N.Mittal the Orissa government today constituted a Joint Working Group(JWG) headed by state Chief Secretary Subash Pani.

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier announced that a core committee would be constituted to discuss the proposal of Mr Mitttal when the later met him here on July 7 last and offered to set up a mega steel plant in the state.

The Joint working Group was constituted on the eve of the visit of a technical expert team of the Arcelor-Mittal to study the infrastructure facilities,availability of raw materials and the three locations suggested by the state government.

Official sources said the Secretary Steel and Mineswould act as Secretary of the JWG while the other members are the Chairman cum Managing Director of the Industrial Promotion Investment Corporation Limited(IPICOL),the Special Secretary Commerce and Transport,the Managing Director of the Infrastructure Development Corporation(IDCO) and three members from the Arcelor-Mittal Steel Company.

The group would work as a facilitator for the setting up of the Steel plant and hold series of consultation for the proposed project Mr Mittal who flew in from London on July 7 announced his desire to set up a 12 MT project of Rs 40,000 crore in the state during a discussion with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The state government while welcoming the investment has proposed Dhamra, Gopalpur and Keonjhar as ideal sites for setting up of the mega steel plant.

The Arcelor-Mittal expert team headed by Mr.Sanak Mishra,former Managing Director of Rourkela Steel Plant(RSP) would visit all these sites during their week long stay in Orissa.

The visit of the team has assumed significance as the Mittal Steel Company limited had already signed an MoU with the Jharkhand government earlier for setting up of the same project.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over the progress of the project in Jharkhand, Mr Mittal had hinted to go ahead with the Orissa steel plant project if things would move first.

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