NMDC finalises Rs 3,000-cr pipeline project

Hyderabad : State-run iron ore miner NMDC Ltd has finalised a Rs 3,000-crore slurry pipeline project for evacuating ore from its Bailadila mines in Chhattisgarh to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.“I have just finalised the complete structure of laying the pipeline for evacuation of material from our Bailadila mines to Jagdalpur in the first stage and to Vizag in the second stage,” chairman and managing director Rana Som told Business Standard today.

The execution of the project, according to Som, will enable NMDC to dispatch an additional 6-7 million tonnes (mt) of ore. “To that extent, the production will also go up,” he said, emphasising that production and evacuation of ore were interlinked.

Apart from the pipeline, NMDC has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Indian Railways for laying of an additional railway line between Bailadila and Jagdalpur. NMDC has agreed to bear the entire cost of the line, estimated to be Rs 850 crore.

The Bailadila mines account for nearly 70 per cent of NMDC’s iron ore production, which stood at 23.8 mt in 2009-10. Besides, NMDC is setting up a Rs 15,525-crore, 3-mtpa steel plant, a Rs 1000-crore pelletisation plant and a Rs 600-crore beneficiation plant at Nagarnur near Jagdalpur.