Foundation stone for steel plant to be laid on Nov 2

Kolkata: JSW Bengal Steel is set to lay the foundation stone of its Rs 35,000 crore integrated steel plant on November 2 at Salboni in West Midnapur.

'We want to begin the construction without any delay to meet our deadlines and thus the ground-breaking ceremony has been finalised on November 2 at the site,' JSW Bengal Steel Joint-CEO and Managing Director Biswadip Gupta said.

Gupta said that the company has already done the financial closure of the first part of first phase steel plant of Rs 4,000 with State Bank of India as lead banker in the project being implemented at a debt equity ratio of 2:1.

'West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan have agreed to attend the ceremony,' he said.

JSW Bengal Steel will have three million tonne steel plant in the first phase which is likely to be operational from 2011-12.

'We have received all necessary clearances, including the one to get water from river Rupnarayan required for the project,' Gupta said. The company is also expecting to get the SEZ status for the project from the Commerce Ministry.

JSW Bengal will also have a three million tonne cement plant and a captive power plant. It will be able to scale up the steel production capacity to 10 million tonne in phases.