Nitish wants Mittal in Bihar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has decided to approach global steel majors, including Mittal Steel, and urge them to set up a steel plant in the state near its border with Jharkhand, close to Nawada.

Kumar has told The Indus Entrepreneurs, a global not-for-profit organisation focused on promoting entrepreneurship, that it should help in Bihar's efforts to find a company that will invest in a steel plant.

Ramesh Yadava, a Silicon Valley professional, who is deeply interested in developing Bihar and was used by former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad as a pointsperson for the state in the US, is said to be exploring options, including approaching the Mittal group.

Bihar was denuded of its most important steel plants - at Jamshedpur and Bokaro - when the state was divided in 2000.

All the locational advantages because of which Bihar got two steel plants in the first place, accrued to Jharkhand. One of Bihar's most important natural resources and ancillary industry was lost to Jharkhand.

Kumar, confiding in a group of non-resident Indian industrialists that visited Bihar a week ago, said the logic of locating steel plants near pit heads - which is why the plants have now gone to Jharkhand - was today obsolete.

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