Arcelor Mittal to set up an ITI at Keonjhar

Bhubaneswar, Nov 17: With beginning of the land survey activities at its proposed plant site in Orissa, world`s largest steel maker Arcelor Mittal on Friday said it would set up an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Keonjhar for imparting technical education to local youth.

A delegation of the steel major, which proposed to set up a 12 MTPA Greenfield steel mill in Orissa`s Keonjhar district, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday evening.

"The Arcelor Mittal Group has informed the state government that it would soon establish an ITI at Keonjhar and take steps to launch mobile health service in the tribal dominated district," an official at the CMO said.

Sources said that the company had already launched the survey in 16 villages in Patna tehsil and it was completed in four villages. The company had also submitted a land acquisition plan to the state government, they said.

According to Arcelor Mittal`s group management board member Malay Mukherjee, the company had already finalised a rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) plan for the people to be affected. The company was waiting for the land clearance from the state government after which the R&R plan would be submitted, he said.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress in the Orissa project, Mukherjee said about 70 per cent of the detailed project report (DPR) for the Orissa project was ready. "We expect that the DPR would be ready by June, 2008," he said.

Mukherjee revealed that the company had already got a coal block at Rampia along with five other partners with an estimated reserve of 600 million tonnes of coal. “Our share in the coal block could be 85 million tonnes”, he said.

On raw material requirement for its Greenfield unit, Mukherjee said the company had recently applied for a joint partnership with the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) in this regard.

”We are looking for different options for sourcing iron ore including mine prospecting by the company itself”, he said.

During discussion with Chief Minister, the company delegates assured that the Orissa project would be “world class” with use of state of the art technology in steel making. They also assured to take measures for environment protection in the locality.

Bureau Report

Source: zeenews.com