India’s Ministry of Steel is working on a policy to facilitate the transfer of surplus land held by domestic companies to foreign companies seeking to make investments in the steel industry in India, an Indian government official said on Thursday, May 11.
The official said that the policy, as a follow-up to the newly-unveiled National Steel Policy, would be an attempt to attract foreign investments in steel manufacturing in India.
The National Steel Policy, inter alia, has laid down the goal of creating 300 million mt of domestic steelmaking capacity by 2031.
The biggest obstacle for foreign investors to set up a manufacturing base in India is land acquisition and hence the new policy would aim to make it easier for Indian companies to transfer surplus land to foreign companies in lieu of an equity stake in the steel project, the official added. He also claimed that the protracted struggle over availability of land and protests by indigenous people against land acquisition was the single biggest reason for South Korean steelmaker POSCO to withdraw from constructing a 12 million metric ton per year greenfield steel mill in the eastern Indian port town of Paradip.
Initially, the Ministry of Steel would focus on empowering government-owned companies and some of the largest holders of surplus land to transfer land to prospective foreign steel sector investors in return for equity or participation in the project as a joint venture partner, the official added.