ArcelorMittal to spend Rs 2400 cr for resettlement and rehabilitation projects in India

BHUBANESWAR: The world's largest steel-maker ArcelorMittal would spend about Rs 2,400 crore towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, including resettlement and rehabilitation in India where it was setting up two giant greenfield projects.

"We will spend $ 600 million towards the CSR programmes in Orissa and Jharkhand where the company is setting up two mega steel plants of 12 MTPA capacity each," ArcelorMittal Vice-President (CSR), said Remi Boyer.

Boyer, who visited the proposed plant sites in Orissa's Keonjhar district and also in Jharkhand in the last three days to review the CSR work, said the expenditure on these activities in each project would be of the order of USD 300 million.

Besides rehabilitation colonies for people facing displacement due to the projects, the company would disburse compensation to affected families and build basic infrastructure for them using the CSR funds, he said.

Infrastructures like roads, electricity, water, sewage disposal system and sanitation would be provided and project affected people would be resettled, Boyer said.

Two medical units were also functioning in the proposed site for the Rs 40,000 crore project in Keonjhar.

A comprehensive socio-economic study has been conducted at Keonjhar where about 2400 families in 14 villages were expected to face displacement for setting up the mega steel plant, Boyer and ArcelorMittal's country head Sanak Mishra said.