NEW DELHI: The biggest integrated steel plant in Odisha, owned by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), was made operational on Saturday with the commissioning of the country’s largest blast furnace.
The plant, with its 4,554 cubic metre blast furnace, will make Odisha the fourth-largest steel-maker in the country.
Inaugurating the state-of-the-art steel plant Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the state government was creating an industrial ecosystem for enhanced value addition in Odisha. “My vision is to create 30 lakh additional employment opportunities by 2025 and bring prosperity for the people of the state. JSPL’s 6mtpa steel plant is yet another step towards realising that vision.”
JSPL chairman Naveen Jindal said the plant was set up at an investment of about Rs 33,000 crore and it would enable the company to overcome its loss in the aftermath of the coal block cancellation.
He added that production of JSPL would increase substantially and the effort would be to make the company, which has a consolidated debt of around Rs 46,000 crore, ‘relatively debt-free’ in the next about five years.
Stating that coal block cancellation had badly affected the operations and the company, he said JSPL had to face a tough time during the last three years incurring a loss of Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore.