SAIL to develop 5 steel villages in Bihar: Paswan

Patna, Feb 04: Union Minister of Steel and Fertiliser Ram Vilas Paswan has announced that Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) will adopt five villages in Bihar to develop them as 'steel villages' Talking to reporters here last night, Mr Paswan dwelt at length what he meant by 'steel villages' saying SAIL would develop these villages with proper utilisation of steel to provide amenities in these villages. ''The decision has been taken to propagate the use of steel,'' he added.

Mr Paswan said, "India was far behind the other developed nations in terms of consumption of steel as their per capita consumption was 500 to 700 Kg while in India it was merely 35 Kg. Per capita steel consumption in Bihar is pathetic low at 7.5 Kg which required to be increased with support from private as well as private sectors", he maintained.

He said that 200 bullock carts made of steel would be provided to the farmers. "The distribution would be made through the agriculture department" he said adding bullock carts would be equally distributed in north and south Bihar.

Mr Paswan said a target had been fixed to increase the steel production of SAIL from 42 million tonnes to 110 million tonnes by the year 2020. The total investment in SAIL would be increased from Rs 33,000 crore to One lakh crore during the next 13 years'' he informed.

He said that steel processing plants would be installed in Bihar and other states where there are no iron ore mines. "For these steel processing units, raw steel would be brought from iron ore mining areas and it would be set up in the industrially backward region" he added.

Mr Paswan said that one dealer of SAIL would be appointed in every district of the country which would facilitate the availability of steel at uniform rate across the nation.

UNI