Steel Authority of India Ltd. likely to surrender Rs. 35,000 crore Sindri revival project.

State-owned SAIL is likely to exit the Rs. 35,000-crore revival project of the Sindri fertiliser plant in Jharkhand due to inordinate delay in land acquisition.

The steel behemoth has already conveyed problems it faced in land acquisition to the Fertilizers Ministry, sources said.

Aspiring to have a 50-million-tonne (MT) steel capacity, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) came out with a plan to set up a new 1.15 MT per annum (MTPA) fertiliser plant, a steel mill of 5.6 MTPA capacity and a 1,000 MW power plant with a total of Rs. 35,000 crore investment.

SAIL's proposal was also cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in August, 2011 and a new company, SAIL Sindri Projects, was created in November, 2011 for the revival of the unit. The unit stopped production in 2002.

'Due to land encroachment issues, SAIL may surrender the project. Funding is also an issue for the PSU which has other commitments to fulfil. SAIL's exit may delay the revival of the project,' a senior government official said.



ET