ArcelorMittal to relocate steel plant to Bokaro

The world's largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, has decided to shift the location of its planned 12-million tonnes per annum steel plant within Jharkhand to Bokaro from Khunti and Gumla districts, mainly on account of land acquisition problems.

"ArcelorMittal has informed us that they want to shift to Petarwar (Bokaro) and need about 2,000 acres of land for the first phase of their project. They said the response from Petarwar was positive," Jharkhand mines and industries secretary N N Sinha told PTI.

The steel major has been facing stiff opposition from the local people in getting land in Jharkhand's Khunti and Gumla districts for the steel plant.

This had prompted the company to postpone the commencement of plant to 2014 from 2012 earlier.

Tata Motors had last year shifted the Nano plant to Gujarat from West Bengal, because of a similar threat from the local people of Nandigram, where it first planned to set up the project (See: Tata's 'Nano' finally homes in on Gujarat).

However, ArcelorMittal's shifting of plant just within the state offers some relief to the state government.
The company in 2005 said it is setting up a 12 million tonne greenfield project in Jharkhand at a cost of about Rs50,000-crore; but it has been facing delays in land acquisition amid regulatory hurdles.