Wary Bengal forms panel to look into steel plant proposals

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With mineral-rich states like Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand trying to slap clause on steel plants interested only in captive mining of iron ore and coal, West Bengal, seating on a host of proposals for steel plants with a limited resource of land, is scrutinising the proposals for techno-economic feasibility.

“We do not want scarce land locked up into industries, which are not running. If the steel plant does not happen, it is a totally zero situation for us,” state commerce and industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen said.

The mineral-rich states have been mounting pressure over the last few years on steel plants to locate their units in those states only, instead of allowing only captive mining. West Bengal, concerned with the situation, has formed an expert committee to look into the techno-economic feasibility of each proposal along with the actual land requirement of the plants.

“We have 12-13 proposals for steel plants with a capacity of 37 million tonne,” he said. The proposals exclude plans by public sector units like Durgapur Steel Plant and Iisco Ltd.

According to a recent study conducted by the Asssocham, West Bengal has attracted maximum planned investment worth Rs 1,27,302 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year. This includes an investment plan of Rs 17,133 crore in the steel only.

“We need to scrutinise every project properly as to know how much land does a project require,” Sen said at an interactive session in the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

“The tendency is to ask for more land than what is needed. Moreover water resource is also limited in the state,” said Sen.

The state government has identified six locations for large-scale industries. The first being greater Kolkata, including North & South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly, second being Durgapur and Asansol, third at Haldia, fourth at Kharagpur including the region near Salboni, fifth at Siliguri and Jalpaiguri and knowledge-based industrial zone at Kalyani.

The state government is in talks with a few major players in the biotechnology sector to set up the proposed biotechnology park in Kharagpur.