KMCL will instal a seven metre tall coke oven battery with 67 ovens according to the design given by Ranchi-based Mecon Ltd, a by-products complex and a gas-based power plant whose zero date started on April 1, 1997.

Sources in KMCL told The Financial Express that construction works at the plants of KMCL and NINL are running behind schedule. The KCML project is likely to be delayed by two years from April 1999, the scheduled date for commissioning the project. The completion of NINL's steel plant is likely to be delayed by six months.

According to the sources, both NINL and KMCL are suffering from cash crunch. MMTC Ltd, the mainpromoter of KMCL, has retained stakes in both the companies. It holds Rs 49 crore equity in KMCL as against the proposed total equity component of Rs 190 crore. LG Corp of South Korea, which had proposed to take up Rs 49 crore equity in the company, later backed out.

Meanwhile, the Ranchi-based Research & Development Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS) of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has begun testing and evaluating foreign coals required for KMCL's coke oven batteries. Under the first phase, laboratory characterisation of 44 foreign coal samples for proximate analysis, caking/ coking properties and potrography has been completed. The second phase will cover pilot oven carbonisation tests on about 25 blends.