Vedanta to set up steel plant in Jharkhand with 4.5-MT capacity

Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday said it will set up a new steel plant in Jharkhand with a capacity of 4.5 million tonnes (MT) per annum at an investment of USD 3-4 billion. The plant will be part of the company's newly-acquired Electrosteel Steels Ltd (ESL) at Bokaro, Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal told reporters here.

"This would be a new steel plant under ESL and in the same location at Bokaro... so it's a brownfield investment per se. The amount is likely to be to the tune of USD 3-4 billion for a capacity of 4.5 MT," Agarwal said.

Vedanta would initially invest about USD 300 million to augment the capacity of ESL to 2.5 MT from the existing 1.5 MT. Once the new facility is commissioned, the total capacity of ESL would be around 7 MT, he said without elaborating on the time frame.

The plant would create 1,20,000 jobs in the form of direct and indirect employment, Agarwal said. "We have about 2,200 acres at ESL and are scouting for a little more... The Jharkhand government has been very cooperative in this regard," he said.

In March, Vedanta was declared as the successful resolution applicant for ESL under the corporate insolvency resolution process. The company has acquired control of ESL and a new board of directors has been put in place.

(With inputs from agencies.)