Finally, Orissa has won over Jharkhand in hosting Arcelor Mittal steel. Arcelor Mittal has signed a MoU with the government of Orissa to establish a 12 million tonne steel plant in Orissa with an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.

Orissa steel secretary L N Gupta and board member of Arcelor Mittal, Malay Mukherjee have signed the MoU in the presence of the Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik.

Earlier, Mittal Steel had signed a MoU with Jharkhand to set up a plant in that State. Later, the project could not materialize owing to uncertainty on allocation of iron ore mines.

According to the MoU, Arcelor Mittal would set up the two projects of six million tones each in the tribal-dominated Keonjhar district in two phases.

Arcelor Mittal’s proposal would also include facilities for coke oven, steel making, rolling mills and a captive power plant of 750 MW.

Earlier, South Korean steel giant POSCO has already to establish a 12 million tonne plant with the investment of Rs 52,000 crore near Paradip.

Arcelor Mittal President and CEO Lakshmi N Mittal said in a statement that

we have always said that we want to have an operational presence in India. The Indian economy is demonstrating excellent growth and steel consumption is set to increase considerably in the future.

The company had also asked for an SEZ status in the state. However, the new project would require 8,000 acres land of which 6,000 acres would go for the plant and 1,000 acres each for the captive power plant and the township.

Further, the plant’s need of 125 million cubic Kanupur dam would fulfill metre of water per year that is under construction on Baitarani River.

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