India’s Ministry of Steel has abandoned plans for four ultra mega steel plants of 10 million mt per year each, in face of opposition from provincial governments on issues of land and allocation of raw materials, a ministry of steel official said on Friday, April 5.
“Governments of provinces where the steel plants were proposed to be built such as Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have opposed the projects in private or government sector on grounds that large contiguous land could not be made available,” the official said.
“Moreover, with many existing steel mills yet to be allocated captive raw materials like iron ore and coal, new projects cannot be provided with raw material assets by the provincial governments,” the official added.
In communication to the Ministry of Steel, the provincial governments indicated that they do not favor ultra mega steel plants within their territories on the ground that the required 4,000-6,000 acres of land cannot be provided.
Moreover, the Ministry of Finance also rejected offering any government incentives to such large steel projects on the grounds that domestic steel producers operated in a deregulated and open market environment and government incentives cannot be justified, the official added.