BHUBANESWAR: Though 10 per cent of the Rs. 1,95,000 crores investment proposed by different companies for setting up greenfield steel projects is yet to be launched, industrial houses have queued up with bunches of applications for securing mining lease in Orissa. In a written reply to a question on status of mining lease applications, Steel and Mines Minister Padmanabha Behera presented a fact-sheet, which showed steel companies that had signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State government had forwarded their applications for multiple mining locations. The government so far signed 46 MoU with different companies, of which 42 were linked with iron ore lease while the remaining (three steel plants and one pelletisation plant) were without any iron ore linkage. Altogether, 46 steel plants proposed to produce 74.66 million tonne per annum. Of these, 24 steel companies paid less than Rs. 1,000 crores (Rs. 754 crores exactly) to both State and Central Governments on account of taxes after investing nearly Rs. 15,000 crores only. BRG Iron and Steel Company (P) Limited, which proposed to set up 0.25 million tonne capacity steel plant at Khurunti in Dhenkanal district, filed as many as 51 applications for iron, manganese and chromite ore mines in five districts. As of now, the company only started sponge iron (an intermediary form of steel) production and paid a tax of Rs. 27 crores.

Major players

It was followed by VISA Steel Limited that signed MoU for 0.35mt steel plant in Jajpur district. VISA submitted 32 applications for iron, chromite and manganese ore mines. The other players, who had come forward with applications for more than 10 locations, included Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited, Uttam Galva Steels Ltd, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Viraj Steel and Energy Limited, SMC Power Generation Limited, Shree Mettalliks, Rungta Mines Ltd, OCL India Ltd, Neepaz Metaliks, Maithan Ispat Limited and MSP Metaliks. South Korean steel major POSCO, which promised country's largest ever FDI (Rs. 52,000 crores) for its proposed 12 million tonne steel mill, applied for two mines in Keonjhar and Sundargarh district. While Thakurani mines in Keonjhar district for POSCO had been recommended by the State government, application for another mines in Sundargarh was being verified at the district Collector- level. Altogether, 455 applications for mining lease were pending at different stages. In the meantime, many files moved from Collector's office to Directorate of Mines and finally to top brass of the State.

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