The government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha is willing to offer land near the coastal port town of Paradip along the Bay of Bengal to Indian state-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for its planned 3 million mt greenfield steel mill project, a government official said on Monday, June 10.
The official said that the Odisha government has a lot ‘land available’ in Jagatsinghpur district in close proximity to Paradip Port, which will be suitable for SAIL’s coast-based steel mill project.
He said that a team of SAIL officials is expected to visit the state and appraise the various alternative sites of land available along the Odisha coast, following which the state government will commence work on making the chosen land available to the steel company.
However, the official declined to divulge whether the Odisha government will offer SAIL the land parcel of 2,900 acres acquired near Paradip Port of which 1,700 acres were handed over to the now abandoned 10 million mt per year steel mill envisaged by South Korea’s POSCO, from which the latter subsequently withdrew.
Last year, it had been reported that the Odisha government was keen to offer part of the erstwhile POSCO land to private sector steel producer JSW Limited for a greenfield project.