POSCO team coming to scout for location

 
Disclosing this to reporters, Karnataka Industry Minister Murugesh Nirani said the representatives of the company have already held talks with the State government.

The company has proposed to establish a steel plant with a capacity to produce six million tonnes of steel per annum. The state government has, in principle, given approval for the mega project. Another global steel major ArcelorMittal proposes to set  up a plant at Kudthini in Bellary.  The State government has already sent a team of officials from Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), the State’s nodal agency for facilitating infrastructure facility to industries, to Bellary to inspect the areas.

Arcelor’s choice

Company representatives recently met government officials in Bangalore and informed them that considering the proximity of mining areas in Bellary as well as the Tungabhadra reservoir, Arcelor decided to set up the plant at Kuduthini. Earlier, the company officials conducted techno-feasibility studies  at Kudthini in Bellary and Kolhara in the Basavana Bagewadi taluk of Bijapur district.

“The 4,000 acres sought by the company in Kuduthini is a private farmland. Only single crop is being grown there,” the minister said. However, there is no displacement of families as there is no human settlement in these lands. The company has promised to provide job to one person to each family which may lose land for the project,” said the minister.

The company has claimed that the project can generate 10,000 jobs. The state government has promised to provide water from either the Alamatti or Tungabhadra Reservoirs.