West Bengal allots 505 acres for Rs 7k-cr Adhunik Corp venture

KOLKATA: Adhunik Corporation, which is planning to set up an integrated steel plant in West Bengal, has received allotment of a substantial portion of its required land, in what comes as a major boost to the company’s proposed Rs 7,000-crore steel and power venture.

The company, which is part of the city-based Adhunik Group of Industries with interests in steel, mining and power, has just been provided 505 acres at Raghunathpur in the state’s industrially-backward Purulia district. The company had requested for a total of 700 acres in the area. This was confirmed by sources in West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, (WBIDC), the state’s nodal arm for industrial development, which facilitated land for the project.

Adhunik Corporation’s project involves setting up a steel plant with a capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per annum (tpa) along with a 1,000 mw captive power plant and a 1 million cement plant at Raghunathpur. The company is involved in production of sponge iron at Durgapur and also manufactures billets made out of alloy steel.

The company had entered into an MoU with the West Bengal government for the proposed project in December 2007 around the time when the state received a spate of proposals for investment in iron and steel sector. As per the MoU with Adhunik Corporation, WBIDC and West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation will facilitate land, coal and water for the project.

However, with the economic slowdown hitting the steel sector prospects adversely since October 2008, most companies were forced to postpone their plans for setting up new plants. In the past few months, with the economy showing positive signs of recovery, steel companies are once again reviving their expansion plans.