ArcelorMittal starts acquiring land in Karnataka

Karnataka : The world's largest steel-maker ArcelorMittal has made some headway on its projects in India, particularly in Karnataka, where it intends to set up a small mill with a capacity of about 3 million tonnes per annum, a top official of the company said.

"There is some progress... Land acquisition has started, licencing process for water is on... So there has been small progress... We are moving ahead step by step and taking smaller steps," a Member of ArcelorMittal's Group Management Board and the Head of its Long Carbon Products division, Michel Wurth, told PTI here

In its quest to set up a steel plant in India, the world's largest steel maker is now banking on Karnataka, where it intends to set up a 6-mtpa steel mill in two phases alongside a captive 750-MW power plant at an estimated investment of Rs 30,000 crore ($6.5 billion).

The projects, which would have attracted an estimated investment of over $10 billion each, are yet to see the light of the day due to land acquisition problems and regulatory hurdles. The company even had to shift the site of the proposed project to Bokaro, in Jharkhand, from Khunti-Gumla.

According to its annual report for 2010, ArcelorMittal has shifted its focus in the country to setting up smaller plants due to implementation challenges associated with large greenfield projects in India.