Indian state-run steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has indefinitely deferred expansion plans for its Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) until such time as illegal encroachments on the project site have been cleared, company sources said on Tuesday, May 9.
The sources said that SAIL executives at a meeting held recently decided not to push ahead with the planned $3.7 billion expansion of RSP until such time land at the project site at Rourkela in Odisha has been cleared of illegal occupation by around 6,000 families.
They said that efforts to clear the encroachment had been initiated in 2021 with SAIL proposing rehabilitation and resettlement of the encroachers, but no headway has been possible so far. Since availability of the land in proximity to the existing mill is critical for the expansion investments, the project has been deferred until such time the total requirement of land has been assured.
The RSP expansion project envisages increasing installed capacity to 9.3 million mt from 4.5 million mt at present through construction of new blast furnaces, a coke oven battery, a steel smelting shop and a new rolling mill for flat products production.
This is a component of SAIL’s larger expansion project for expansion of other mills under its fold, Bokaro Steel Plant (BSP), Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) and IISCO Steel Plant (ISP), to take its total steelmaking capacity to 50 million mt per year by 2030 from 24 million mt at present.