With Odisha having the required natural resources for setting up greenfield steel plants, the Union Government has urged the State to promote such steelmakers.
In fact, Odisha is on the ‘top priority list’ of the Ministry of Steel as the first steel hub is coming up in Kalinganagar and the Centre is willing to extend all sorts of help in this regard. While over these years, most of the capacity expansion has been through the brownfield route in the country, but in Odisha greenfield route has been successful and in future greenfield steel plants will be promoted by Centre, said a senior official in Ministry of Steel.
Now, the demand for finished steel is 99 million tonnes per annum (MTPA); and, accordingly, crude steel production has increased to 142 MTPA. According to estimates, domestic steel consumption will increase to 160 MTPA by 2024-25.
With initiatives like Make In India, Housing For All, Jal Jeevan Mission, consumption of domestic steel will increase significantly. Now with current capacity utilisation of the existing players, it is expected that addition will be 30 MTPA.
But with increased demand of additional 30 MTPA capacity, it will be possible through greenfield steel plants with an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore.
Odisha will be benefitted by allowing setting up of greenfield steel plants having production capacity of 4 MTPA with an investment of Rs 6,000 crore per MTPA. These plants will lead to multiple benefits including significant Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and employment generation.
In order to facilitate such huge investment, a Greenfield Steel Plant Policy is being formulated, which will facilitate big ticket investments.
Through the policy framework, it is aimed to facilitate four key issues for which major investors are facing tough time. Firstly, these investors will be requiring encumbrance free land, which is needed to make them available on priority basis and the State Government will play a key role.
Secondly logistic and infrastructure facilities like road, water, power and other facilities are needed, which is in the ambit of State Government.
Long term availability of iron ore at competitive price is also needed, which is the lookout of the Union Government, officials say.
Besides, statutory clearances are taking time and a timeline is needed to be drawn up for making available these clearances for which greenfield projects take more time, leading to slow take off.
These concerns are to be tackled through policy framework and the State Government would have to play a proactive role in this regard, said Union Steel Secretary Binoy Kumar while approaching the State Government, pointed out an official.
