Odisha seeks progress report from steel companies

The state government action came in the wake of a letter from Union Ministry of Steel asking about the progress in different steel project, official sources said. "We will apprise the Centre about details of progress made by different steel companies," said Chief Secretary B K Patnaik.

The state government has also asked the companies details about their land acquisition status, investments made so far, raw material linkage and present status of the projects. Though at least 59 steel manufacturing companies had signed MoU with the state government to set up steel plants about five years ago, only 29 of them have been able to start partial production, the sources said.

All mega projects barring Tata Steel were also lagging behind schedule. The 59 companies had committed to produce 132.76 mtpa of steel by investing about Rs 3,70,435 crore, sources said.

Ultra mega steel projects like Posco-India and ArcelorMittal, which haD signed MoU to produce 12mtpa steel each, were yet to begin land acquisition for their proposed project even after five years. Both of them are now seeking renewal of their MoU.