Mining firm Vedanta Ltd said on Tuesday that it will set up a new steel plant in Bokaro city of Jharkhand, PTI reported. The plant will have an annual capacity of 4.5 million tonne, and will involve an investment of $3 billion to $4 billion.
The plant will be part of the firm’s newly-acquired Electrosteel Steels Ltd, Vedanta Resources Chairperson Anil Agarwal told reporters in Kolkata. “This would be a new steel plant under ESL and in the same location at Bokaro,” he said. “So its a brownfield investment per se.” A brownfield investment is an investment wherein a company purchases or leases existing production facilities to launch a new production activity.
The plant will create 1.2 lakh jobs in the form of direct and indirect employment, Agarwal claimed. “We have about 2,200 acres at ESL and are scouting for a little more,” he said. “The Jharkhand government has been very cooperative in this regard.” Agarwal did not provide a time frame for the setting up of the plant.
On December 21, the Madras High Court restrained Vedanta from reopening its Sterlite copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district for a month, after the National Green Tribunal overturned a state government decision to shut it down.
For two decades, activists and residents have protested against the plant, saying that it has contaminated the air and water in the region and caused health problems. At least 13 people protesting against the expansion of the copper smelter were killed in May. This had prompted the state government to permanently shut down the plant.
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