Survey to assess per capita rural steel demand

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said it would launch a survey to assess per capita steel consumption in rural India. ���In order to correctly assess the rural steel consumption, we have decided to launch a nationwide survey on ���Rural Steel Consumption and Demand���,��� steel minister Virbhadra Singh told reporters here on the sidelines of a steel summit organised by FICCI.

The survey, to be conducted by the Joint-Plant Committee (JPC) of the steel ministry, will cover 300 districts and 1,500 villages across the country, he said. The last survey was carried out about 5-6 years ago when per capital steel consumption in rural areas was 2 kg. ���There is definitely some improvement over the last 2-3 years, considering that a large number of infrastructure and rural housing projects have been taken up under various schemes of the government,��� he added.

India���s steel consumption rose by 5.7% to 26.49 million tonnes in the first six months of the current fiscal over the same period a year ago.