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Government permits Jindal steel plant to draw water from Krishna

Staff Correspondent

Company has chalked out plan to take 45 million gallons of water a day

Steel unit: Jindal South West has set up a mega integrated steel plant in Bellary district.

TORANGAL (BELLARY DISTRICT): The State Government has permitted Jindal South West (JSW), which has set up a mega integrated steel plant here, to draw water from the Krishna to the Almatti to meet its water requirements.

Announcing this to presspersons at the plant premises on Saturday, Vinod Nowal, executive director (Commercial), said the company had chalked out a plan to draw 45 million gallons of water a day from the industrial quota. Pipelines would be laid for 160 km at an estimated cost of Rs. 600 crore. At present, the company had been getting water from the Tungabhadra in Hospet. However, the water drawn was sufficient for the present production of steel to the tune of four million tonnes a annum (mtpa). The need for additional water arose with the company’s plan to expand its production capacity from the present four mtpa to seven mtpa by mid 2008 and up to ten mtpa by 2010. He said the Almatti had surplus water and the dam had filled up during a rain spell. Secondly, the allocation to the company was from out of the industrial quota, which had remained unused so far.

As such there would not be any problem for cultivation, he said. The expansion programme going on in full swing and would been completed on schedule. The company would start executing work on getting additional water in a few months.

“As no other private industries in the region had shown interest in joining hands with JSW and to share the cost of getting water, we have decided to implement the project on our own. Recently, the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, which has been implementing the 1,000-MW thermal power station near Kuditini had shown some interest in getting more water for its plant by sharing the cost. We have requested them to tell us about the decision taken so that we can go ahead on our own,” he said.

He said 279 of the total 302 land losers were given employment and there had been no claim from the remaining 23 families in this regard.

As part of its corporate social responsibility programme, JSW had planned to supply drinking water to around 16 villages surrounding the plant at an estimated cost of Rs. 6 crore.

The plan for the purpose was ready and was awaiting approval from the Government, he said.

The company through its foundation had come out with several community-centred projects including the Datahalli (Business Process Outsourcing) in which girls from rural areas were trained in operating computers, the dairy development groups for women and vocational training for youths.

J.P.N. Lal, a director, was present.

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