India’s Ministry of Steel is setting up a high-level committee to monitor and resolve bottlenecks in implementing the $3.45 billion expansion of Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a government official said on Thursday, June 26.
The official said that the decision to monitor the project and ensure its efficient implementation was taken at a meeting between the minister of heavy industries, Dharmendra Pradhan, and the minister of steel, H. D. Kumaraswamy.
Hurdles related to land were among the primary reasons for delays in commencing the project. SAIL has approved expanding the capacity of Rourkela steel mill to 9 million mt per year from 4.4 million mt per year, entailing an investment of $3.45 billion.
Following the expansion, to be completed across 1,200 acres at the existing steel mill located in the eastern state of Odisha, RSP will account for 25 percent of SAIL’s total steel output of 35 million mt per year by 2030.