Considering the lack of evacuation and other infrastructure, an Indian consortium led by SAIL decided to reduce the planned capacity of an upcoming steel plant in Afghanistan.
The consortium of three state-run and four private Indian players decided to set up a smaller plant with a capacity of less than 2 million tonne (mn t) to cater to Afghan domestic requirement only. A bigger capacity plant was conceived taking into account exports opportunities.
The consortium includes SAIL, RINL, NMDC, JSW, JSW Ispat, Jindal Steel and Power and Monnet Ispat.
The consortium is learnt to have convinced the Afghan Government on the infrastructure constraint and has got the latter agree to the revised capacity of the project.
The consortium bagged the contract to explore three Hajigak iron ore blocks in AfghanistanÂ’s Bamiyan province in November 2011. The steel plant project was later linked to mining project for local value-addition.
The earlier proposalÂ’s cost was estimated at $10.8 billion, including $2 billion on Hijigak mining project.
The consortium is reportedly taking step-by-step approach for the integrated project and primary focus was on exploration and mine development.
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