To meet the increasing demand of steel and beat its skyrocketing prices, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday laid the foundation stone of ambitious Rs. 11,000-crore project for expanding and modernising Bokaro Steel Plant at Bokaro, Jharkhand.
Addressing to public meeting after laying the foundation stone of mega steel project, Prime Minister said that this ambitious project would fulfill the increasing demand of steel up to great extent. “This expansion plan will also create new jobs that is the basic requirement of the state”, he said.
On the issue of spiraling demand and rocketing price of steel, Prime Minister said, “By enhancing more production, we can achieve the target and tame the spiraling prices of steel.”
Warning to the steel makers Manmohan Singh said that steel manufactures should look into long terms view not short-term profits. “Steel industry needs to concentrate more in enhancing the production capacity to meet the rising domestic demand, thereby playing down the issue of monitoring the steel prices for the time being.” said PM.
However, he also mentioned that the steel industry was growing with rapid rate but to meet the exploding consumption demand and enhancing the share in the global steel market, India would have to enhance the production.
This newly inaugurated project would enhance the production capacity of hot rolled metal by 7.44 million tonne from 4.5 million tonnes while its crude steel production would also be enhanced from 4.36 million tonnes to 7 million tonnes. The plan is expected to begin operation by 2011-12.
The Union Steel Minister who is also the Union Minister of Fertilizer and Chemical has said, “Steel production in India is growing at 10 per cent at present, while the growth in domestic consumption is growing at 13 per cent. This calls for huge scale up in production. India needs to fulfill targets of reaching from 5th position to 2nd in global steel production by 2015.”
“We had a policy of raising production to 110 million tonne (mt) by 2020. I am happy to announce that we can reach a production of 124 mt by 2011-12 and have set a new target of 300 mt by 2020”, he added.
While on the role of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Paswan said that SAIL could play a crucial role to meet that target. “We want to merge Nilachal Ispat and Maharashtra Electro Smelt to consolidate SAIL into an even bigger enterprise," he further said.
Moreover, Prime Minister has also announced to allocate the Rs 40,000-crore for the state in the current 11th five-year plan. It is three times more from its previous allocation in the 10th five-year plan.
Prime Minister has also announced to set up 5000 Mega watt power project in Jharkhand to provide better power supply in the state.
The construction of National Highway between Ranchi and Vijayawada and reforming of Hazari Bagh - Ranchi-Jhamshedpur highway to four lanes were among the other announcement of PM Singh.
Governor General of Jharkhand Syed Sibte Razi, Chief Minister Madu Koda, SAIL chairman SK Roongta and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan were presented in the foundation ceremony.
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