By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: NINL Executive Association, which has been opposing disinterment, once again appealed to new Union Steel Minister RCP Singh to explore other options to revive the defunct NINL plant located at Kalinga Nagar Industrial belt of State’s Jajpur district with its captive iron ore mines located in Sundergarh-Keonjhar mining belt.
With 4 major Iron Ore blocks in hand in mineral rich Keonjhar-Sundargarh backed by successful but legally a long fought battle to acquire Bhushan Steel and Power Limited in State’s Jharsuguda-Sambalpur belt, Sajjan Jindal led JSW Steel now emerged as top bidder to acquire NINL.
Besides, JSW Steel, ArcelorMittal, Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (Meil) and Tata Steel are among firms are also in the race. “The draft share transfer agreement has been issued and site visits have been scheduled. Post this, the financial bids will be submitted,” according to media reports. Arcellor-Mittal, Tata and JSW Steel have plants and Mines in Odisha while Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (Meil) was a surprise entrant into the fray.
“Govt should explore other aspects to revive NINL other than disinvestment, like merging with SAIL/RINL/NMDC to expedite its mining activities to start the plant & regularize emploees’ salary.@PMOIndia@CMO_Odisha@PiyushGoyal@SteelMinIndia@SecyChief,” NINL_Executives tweeted @NINL_Executives.
“We appeal hon’ble Union Min of Steel @RCP_Singh sir to review center’s decision of disinvestment of NINL as it has huge potential to thrive with its state of the art integrated steel plant, easy access to rail, road network & port along with own captive iron ore mines,” NINL_Executives tweeted @NINL_Executives.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last year had gaven its in-principle approval for the strategic disinvestment of equity shareholding of MMTC (49.78%), NMDC (10.10%), MECON (0.68%), BHEL (0.68%), IPICOL (12.00%) and The Orissa Mining Company Ltd (20.47%) in NINL.
SBI Capital Markets Ltd is the transaction adviser appointed by the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) for the proposed 100% strategic disinvestment of NINL. NINL has a 1.1 million tonne per annum pig iron production capacity, with its captive iron ore mine having mineable reserves of around 90.91 million tonnes.
