Arcelor-Mittal seeks additional 750 acres for Orissa project
05 Sep 2007
Mumbai: The world''s largest steel maker Arcelor-Mittal has sought an additional 750 acres of land to set up its proposed 12-million tonne greenfield steel plant in Orissa.
This is a clear deviation from its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government, especially since residents of Keonjhar district, where the plant was to be set up, were opposed to the project, state government officials pointed out.
"We
received a letter from the company seeking more land even
after Arcelor-Mittal''s top executives assured that they
would go by the MoU on land requirement," an official
said.
As per the MoU, the steel major required 6,000 acre of land for the steel plant, 1,000 acre for its captive power plant and rest 1,000 acre for township and rehabilitation, involving a total of 8,000 acres of land.
While
it has been agreed to provide 7,000 acre of land for steel
plant and captive power plant in the first phase and remaining
1,000 acre for township and rehabilitation later, the
fresh request letter has sought 7,750 acres of land in
first phase for the steel plant and captive power plant,
official sources pointed out.