BHUBANESWAR: With President Droupadi Murmu likely to visit Rourkela on April 21, Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram on Tuesday met Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at Lok Seva Bhawan here to review key development initiatives in the steel city.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Oram said the discussion focused on accelerating major infrastructure and industrial projects in Rourkela with particular emphasis on expansion of Rourkela Steel Plant and upgradation of Rourkela Airport.
On the steel plant expansion, Oram said land acquisition is progressing satisfactorily. High-level meetings have already been held to resolve the issue and the progress is satisfactory.
Oram had been consistently taking up the two issues with the chief minister. The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has been unable to proceed with the RSP expansion plan from the present 4.5 MTPA to 9.3 MTPA due to lack of support from the state government for freeing 1,200 acre land from encroachment.
“We also discussed about the expansion of Rourkela airport which requires diversion of RSP land and handing it over to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The progress made so far is encouraging,” Oram said.
Sources said, 278 acre of SAIL land and 44 acre private land is required for expansion of the runway of the airport. The Union minister said the proposed visit of President Murmu to Rourkela was also discussed.