By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: With on Tuesday , Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik chaired High Level Clearance Authority giving its nod to the expansion of projects worth Rs 24,652 Crore, the Naveen Jindal led Jindal Steel and Power Limited’s Angul project, became largest single location Steel plant capacity in the World. Angul is home turf of present Steel-PNG Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and known for its rich Coal reserves that houses Talcher Coal Fields.
The State High Level Clearance Authority, chaired by Chief Minister Patnaik, approved 5 major industrial projects to the tune of Rs. 1,46,172 crore in metal and metal downstream sectors, which included Rs. 24,652 Crore of Naveen Jindal led Jindal Steel and Power Limited.
Expansion of JSPL Angul’s 6 million tons per annum existing Integrated steel plant from the proposed capacity of 18.6 million tons per annum to 25.2 million tons per annum against an investment of Rs. 24,652 Crore to be set up in Angul, which will generate potential employment opportunities for over 1,000 persons. This investment will take JSPL’s total investment to be Rs. 1,00,670 Crore, making it the largest single location steel plant capacity in the world.
Approving these projects, Chief Minister Patnaik said that all these projects need a big push forward to realize the steel dream of Odisha.This is in line with Chief Minister’s vision of 2030 for making Odisha the steel hub of India. All these five projects will create an additional steel production capacity of 28 million tons.This will almost double the steel production capacity of the state to 58 million tons, which is currently at 30 million tons per annum.
This will help to achieve the goal to produce 100 million tons of steel by 2030. The state has currently a production capacity of 30 million tons, way ahead of a meager 2 million tons in the year 2000.
Odisha has been able to attract investments to the tune of Rs. 2.96 Lakh Crore in 2020-21 despite the Covid pandemic. With today’s additional investments the total investments since last year will be Rs. 4.43 Lakh Crore.
