NEW DELHI: The Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) on Monday announced a revised capacity addition programme under which it now plans to increase the installed production capacity to 24.98 million tonnes by 2010 from the current level of 13 million tonnes with a higher investment of Rs. 43,000 crore.

Initially, the public sector steel major had drawn up an expansion programme to raise its capacity to 22.5 million tonnes by 2010 with an investment of Rs. 37,000 crore, according to an official release here.

Reviewing the progress of the company's ongoing expansion project here, Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan directed the company's top management to implement the programme on time. He also asked the SAIL Chairman, S. K. Roongta, to come up within two days with a revised schedule for implementing the expansion plan.

Asking the steel major to avoid delays in implementation of the expansion programme as it would cost the exchequer dearly, Mr. Paswan said responsibility should be fixed and action taken for any kind of delay at various stages of execution. He directed the Steel Secretary, R. S Pandey, to review the progress during the first week of each month. There would be further reviews based on the deadlines.

Mr. Paswan pointed to the great opportunity being thrown up to create a solid base for the steel sector and said the board of directors of the Navratna public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as SAIL have been given autonomy to take decisions and procedural snags, if any, should be immediately sorted out.

The SAIL Chairman made a presentation on the progress of the expansion programme and explained the difficulties being faced in their implementation.

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