JSW Steel gets possession of 2,678-acre forest land in Odisha for plant
JSW Steel Ltd’s subsidiary – JSW Utkal Steel – has now got the possession of 2,677.80 acres of forest land in Jagatsinghpur, Odisha where it intends to set up a 13.2 million tonne integrated steel plant.
The company had already got the environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment & Forest and Climate Change in April, 2022, which was then re-validated by the ministry in September last year, with some additional and modified conditions.
“…the Divisional Forest Officer, Mangrove Forest Division (WL), Rajnagar & the Collector have on January 4, 2024 delivered documents pertaining to the handing over of possession for the total forest land admeasuring 2677.80 Acres to JSW Utkal Steel Limited,” company said in an exchange filing on Saturday.
JSW Steel will need a total of 2,950.31 acres of land for this project, of which the non-forest land of 272.51 acres was already leased to the company by the state government over the last two years.
The country’s largest producer of steel – by production capacity – is likely to spend likely to spend ₹65,000 on setting up the plant, which is expected to be one of the largest in the manufacturing sector.
South Korean steel giant POSCO had earlier planned on setting up a plant at this location, which then had to be abandoned amid local protests and delays in environmental clearance.
Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, and Steel Authority of India already have significant manufacturing capacities in the state.
Odisha accounts for more than half of the country’s total output of iron ore, which is a primary raw material used in the production of steel.
JSW Steel currently the capacity to produce around 30 million tonne of steel, which is expected to increase to 38.5
