ArcelorMittal has approached West Bengal government for land at Rajarhat, as it wants to set up an office there, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Monday.

Billionaire L N Mittal, who runs the steel behemoth, is keen to set up a central office in Rajarhat near the city, for which the company has sought land from the state government, Bhattacharjee said in Kolkata, inaugurating the 36th World Congress on Housing Science.

He said other companies such as Airtel and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] had also approached the government for land at Rajarhat.

Mittal was in the process of setting up greenfield plants in Orissa and Jharkhand.

Bhattacharjee said land prices were moving upward and that the asking rate per acre at Rajarhat was Rs 7 crore (Rs 70 million).

He said housing was a major problem in the state and that the government was taking steps to set up satellite townships at Dankuni, Domjur and Baruipur.

Bhattacharjee said since the government alone would not be able to provide housing for all, the PPP (public-private partnership) model was an ideal alternative.

• The Mittal Steel-Arcelor saga