With the Indian government rejecting the project, the southern Indian state of Telengana is considering going it alone to construct a greenfield steel mill through either public-private-partnership (PPP) or build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, a state government official said on Wednesday, July 11.
The official said that the Telengana government is insisting on having a steel mill in the state even though the Indian government has rejected the project through any of its owned steel companies on grounds that such a project would be unviable.
If the PPP model is finalized, the Telengana State Mineral Development Corporation Limited will lead the project as the principal equity shareholder and private investors will be invited to pick up a minority stake in the project, the official said.
The Telangana government is considering preparing a detailed project report for a greenfield steel mill with capacity in the range of 2-3 million mt per year which will entail an investment ranging between $2.2 billion and $3.08 billion, he added.
As things stand now, the steel mill will be based on low grade iron ore available in Telengana and blended with high grade iron ore brought in from the neighboring state of Chhattisgarh, the official added.