'No proposal for takeover of MECON by SAIL'

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Mar 9 (UNI) The Government today denied any proposal for the takeover of leading metallurgical consultant MECON Ltd by Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

Stating this, Minister of State for Steel Akhilesh Das said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that MECON was an independent public sector enterprise, engaged in consultancy and project management jobs ranging from metal, power, oil and gas.

As a leading metallurgical consultant in the country offering services to steel units, both in the public and private sectors, the independent status of MECON Ltd was necessary for overall benefit of the industry as a whole, the minister said.

At present, SAIL, which had one Integrated Steel Plant at Bokaro in Jharkhand, intended to increase the crude steel capacity of Bokaro Steel Plant from 4.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in 2005-06 to 7 MTPA by 2010.

For expansion of its Bokaro plant, new green field steel plan in Jharkhand and IISCO Steel Plant at Burnpur, the Minister said SAIL had applied for renewal of mining leases of Chiria to the Jharkhand Government.

In reply to another question, Dr Das said no target has been fixed for steel production in Jharkhand by his Ministry.

"Iron ore mining leases are allocated by the state government concerned after taking the approval of the Mines Ministry," he told the House.

Regarding Bhilai Steel Plant, Dr Das said SAIL was in the process of obtaining necessary statutory clearances from various agencies of the Central and state government for mining lease for Rowghat.

"The project would be ready for production in a time span of 4-5 years after obtaining statutory clearances and has the potential to provide iron ore supply for another 30 years for the Bhilai plant," he told the members.

UNI

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