In a bid to revive construction of a proposed steel mill, the government of the southern Indian state of Telengana has discussed the construction of a railway link or a slurry pipeline connecting iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh state and Bayyaram, the location of the steel mill, a government official said on Tuesday, November 14.
The official said that the Telengana government will ensure adequate raw material supplies through either a rail link or a slurry pipeline and the Indian federal government will be approached afresh to get a government owned steel company to invest in the steel mill project.
The Telengana government is not in favor of a private sector steel company investing in Bayyaram and will insist on a government owned and managed steel company like Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) investing in the project, the official said.
Exploration of iron ore reserves in Bayyaram completed by the Geological Survey of India estimated availability of 70 million mt of which as much as 59 million mt is estimated to be of low grade iron ore.
Previously, SAIL declined to invest in a steel mill at Bayyaram citing the lack of high quality iron ore in the region, but if the Telengana government could assure supplies of iron ore from Chhattisgarh, the federal government will be asked to direct SAIL to revisit the stalled steel mill project, the official said.