BHUBANESWAR: Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) has won two coal blocks in the state for commercial coal mining purposes.
The firm led by Naveen Jindal has bagged the Utkal B1 and B2 coal blocks, having geological reserves of 347 million tonnes, in the Angul-Talcher coal belt.
Added with the coal reserve of Utkal C, JSPL has now secured sufficient reserves of coal to enable the mega steel company to enhance its capacity for green steel making.
Greeting the people of Odisha on the occasion of Utkal Divas, JSPL chairman Naveen Jindal said they won the Utkal B1 and B2 coal blocks on the 17th Punya Tithi of JSPL founder OP Jindal who had a vision of using indigenous coal to make steel.
“This will help us to translate the shared dream of OP Jindal and legendary leader Biju Patnaik to reality and bring prosperity to Odisha through value addition of natural resources and industrialisation,” he said.
He also announced that aligning with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s vision of industry-led holistic prosperity, JSPL will make the world’s largest single-location steel making complex at Angul by 2030.
The capacity expansion is expected to increase JSPL’s investment in Odisha to more than Rs 1,25,000 crore from existing Rs 45,000 crore leading to enormous economic activity and employment opportunities in the state.
The High-Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) of the Odisha government headed by CM Naveen Patnaik had approved JSPL’s proposal to expand the capacity of its steel plant at Angul to 25.2 MTPA by 2030.
This would be the world’s largest and greenest single-location steel plant, JSPL officials said.
They said JSPL is the first steelmaker in the world to build coal gasification/DRI to produce steel using clean coal technologies.
“The coal gasification route, an environment-friendly technology, would be helpful in producing steel using indigenous coal. This would also reduce dependency on imported coking coal and save huge foreign reserves,” a JSPL official said.