Odisha: Naveen Jindal meets Chief Secretary

Bhubaneswar, Jan 6: Chairman of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) Naveen Jindal met Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra at Loka Seva Bhavan on Wednesday. During the meeting, Jindal discussed progress on the expansion of JSPL’s Angul steel plant to 25.2 MTPA capacity. JSPL’s Managing Director VR Sharma, Group Advisor (Legal, Corp. Affairs & Sustainability) Manish Kharbanda, JPL’s Chairman  AK Jha, and other senior officials of JSPL accompanied Mr. Jindal during the visit. JSPL has set up a 6 MTPA integrated steel plant at Angul. Last year the State High-Level Clearance Authority, headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approved the proposal to expand the plant capacity to 25.2 MTPA by 2030, which will be the largest plant in the world in a single location as per present capacities. The expansion is expected to increase JSPL’s investment in Odisha to more than Rs 1,00,000 crores from Rs 45,000 crores at present. This would also generate enormous economic activity and employment opportunities in the State. Jindal also expressed his disappointment over the blockades being staged in front of the Kasia mines gate by a few people,   instigated by a group of vested interests. He urged the Chief Secretary to break the impasse for the smooth operation of the Mines. JSPL was granted the mining lease of Kasia iron and dolomite block after it became the preferred bidder for the block at a premium of 118.10% in the mineral auction conducted by the state government. After the deposit of the required upfront payment, performance security, and stamp duty, amounting to about Rs 1500 crore, the company signed the lease deed in November last year. Before meeting the Chief Secretary, Jindal also had meetings with Principal Secretary (Industries) Hemant Sharma and Principal Secretary (Steel & Mines) Deoranjan Kumar Singh.