Though Karnataka has recently granted clearance to a Rs30,000 crore steel plant in the state to be set up by ArcelorMittal, the steel billionaire LN Mittal is far from happy.
On Thursday, he slammed the Indian government for not being equipped to deal with mega investments. Mittal said the prime minister is aware of the delays in his huge steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa.
“We have to blame the whole country for this. We have not experienced this kind of growth and interest in investments in India and the states...neither the central government nor the states were prepared for such growth in the steel industry,” said Mittal. He says he will share his concerns with the prime minister.
Chief minister Yeddyurappa, however, said problems such as land acquisition would be dealt with by the new rehabilitation policy. “Land will be valued at more than market price, we will only acquire land with consent, and at least one member of each oustee family will be provided employment.”
Yeddyurappa said Mittal would be promoting 20-30 companies downstream, as part of the steel project. “We have cleared the project on January 5th and two sites have got a preliminary nod by the company. These sites are Hospet in Bellary district and a site in Bijapur district,” he added.
Mittal, however, refused to commit to the Karnataka project, apparently disheartened by his experience in other projects in other states. Referring to his plans in Karnataka, he said: “This is a work in progress. We have received good co-operation from them. This is my first meeting with the chief ministers and if this continues then we can have an MoU in two months.”
Mittal has also been invited as chief guest for the state government-sponsored Global Investors Meet to be held in June this year. ArcelorMittal, which accounts for over 10 per cent of the global steel capacity, had signed MoU with Orissa and Jharkhand in 2005 for setting up identical 12 MTPA plants in the two states, but the projects are yet to take off due to land acquisition trouble, among others.
Mittal said he was “really not satisfied” when asked about the progress of the Rs one lakh crore projects in Jharkhand and Orissa.
Comments