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Global steel heavyweight Mittal Steel is expected to finally decide on whether it would go ahead with its plans to set up a greenfield steel plant in Jharkhand when a high-powered project team from the Mittal side will meet the Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda in New Delhi on February 20.
The stalemate on Mittal Steel's proposed 12-million tonne Jharkhand project is likely to be sorted out at the meeting between the Jharkhand chief minister and the select board members of Mittal Steel who would be coming from London to attend the meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Sanjeev Sengupta, general manager of Mittal Steel's Jharkhand project, told Business Standard on Monday that Mittal steel had not given up its project in Jharkhand.
He dismissed as gossip the report in some newspapers that Mittal Steel was no longer interested in its Jharkhand project though the company was yet to get the lease it had sought for the Chiria iron ore mining block.
Sengupta said Mittal Steel was ready to accept any other iron ore block provided it was suitable for mechanised mining.
The alternative mine should have enough deposits to meet the requirement of delivering 600 million tonnes of iron ore over a period of 30 years.
Referring to the offer of Ankua iron ore mines made by the chief minister recently, the Mittal Steel GM said that he along with the mining experts had visited Ankua and found the site unfit for mechanised mining as it lacked the required length and breadth.
Sengupta said Mittal Steel had shortlisted three sites for the steel project and it was up to the Jharkhand government to decide the location among the three sites.
The sites were at Ghatshila, Seraikela and Torpa, and all of them were in the south of the state in the Singhbhum-Kharsawan region.
