Bengaluru: The state government is in a dilemma whether to permit the world’s biggest steel giant, ArcelorMittal to change the use of land allotted to the company in Ballari to set up a $ 6.5 billion steel plant. ArcelorMittal now wants to set up a solar power plant instead of the steel plant.
Company Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Sharma met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on January 23 and informed him about ArcelorMittal’s inability to set up the steel plant and requested him to permit the company to set up a solar plant in the 2,800 acres in Ballari to produce 600 mega watts of solar power.
Meanwhile, the industries department has asked the company to start the steel plant and has stated that since the MoU was signed between ArcelorMittal and the state government to set up the steel plant, the company should start the plant. In reply, the company wrote to the Industries department citing its inability to start the steel plant following the slowdown at the global level and the stringent guidelines issued by the Supreme Court for new entities to take permission for captive mining.
A top officer said that since ArcelorMittal has expressed its inability to start the steel plant, the department has placed the file before the CM on allowing them to start a solar plant instead. It is left to the CM to take a final call, the officer said.
The Industries department does not favour giving permission to ArcelorMittal to start a solar plant as it will not generate much employment. While giving permission to ArcelorMittal to launch the steel plant, the government has the goal of generating employment in the backward region of Hyderabad-Karnataka.
The govt is reportedly in the same predicament over Brahmani Steel acquired by Uttam Galva with the company now hesitant to start the plant.
‘Investors must submit project details by May 15’
Karnataka government has set a May 15 deadline for investors, who signed pacts during the recent investors' meet, to submit their project details to the state government. "I am not going to wait for long, because I have asked senior nodal officers of these projects to get initial steps going. After three months, or by May 15, if investors had not taken steps to submit their application along with choice of location and details of land use to Karnataka Udyog Mitra, I will treat them as not interested," Industries Minister R V Deshpande said. He told reporters here that the intention behind setting up the deadline was to attract investments and see all MoUs signed, during Invest Karnataka 2016 Global Investors' Meet, fructify.
