Govt gives 2,000 acre land for Rs 300 bn steel project

For implementing its proposed 6-million tonne-per-annum (mn tpa) steel plant, the Karnataka government granted over 2,000 acre land to ArcelorMittal at Kuditini, Bellary district.

The state government and the global steel giant entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Rs 30,000 crore steel project.

Of the 4,800 acre that the state government agreed to provide for the project, the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board acquired 2,000 acre and handed over the land to the company.

Speaking at the state legislative assembly, Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah informed that the proposal to acquire land for South Korean steel major Posco was abandoned owing to protest from farmers and religious heads in Gadag district.

Both the state government and Posco had, in 2010, entered into an agreement to set up 6-mn tpa steel plant at a cost of Rs 32,300 crore.

But difficulty in getting land for the project forced the firm to abandon the project.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the state government has so far handed over 1,274.53 acre land to industries that had signed MoUs at the investorsÂ’ meeting in 2010 (excluding ArcelorMittal) and 794.45 acre to those that had signed such pacts at a similar meeting in 2012.