India : JSW Steel's expansion plans in Odisha get regulatory nod

JSW Utkal Steel, the Odisha subsidiary of JSW Steel, has taken possession of 2950.31 acres of land in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur, Odisha where it intends to construct a 13.2 million tonne (mnt) greenfield steel plant.

The steelmaker on Thursday informed the bourses that the relevant officers, the Divisional Forest Officer (Mangrove Forest Division) of Rajnagar and the District Collector, had handed over documents for 2677.80 acres of forest land. The state government had already leased the remaining 272.51 acres (of non-forest land) to the steelmaker in 2022 and 2023. The development is good news for the state of Odisha which aspires to be home to 100 mtpa of India's ambition to double steel capacity to 300 mtpa steel capacity by 2030.

This land, initially designated for the South Korean steelmaker POSCO, had been embroiled in a prolonged struggle that tested India's forest rights and land acquisition laws. In those years, it practically became a testament to the state government's inability to effectively onboard locals in its drive to industrialize the mineral-rich state of Odisha. After a frustrated POSCO walked away from Odisha in 2015, Sajjan Jindal signed up to build a steel plant in Odisha and zeroed in on the same site for his plans.

The steelmaker with its steel plant in Vijayanagar in Karnataka bought Ispat Industries in 2010 and added one more plant at Dolvi Maharashtra to its assets, strengthening its position in southern and western India. In the last few years, and particularly after iron ore mines were made available through legislative reforms by the Narendra Modi government, JSW Steel has significantly expanded its presence in the east. The company now owns four iron ore mines in Odisha, dedicated berths at Paradip and the 3mtpa Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd acquired through National Company Law Tribunal proceedings.

The Jagatsinghpur site has forest clearance. On orders of the National Green Tribunal, the project's environmental clearance was also revalidated in September of 2023. Land losers have been compensated and the land is free of any claim now, said a company official. Critical to this steel plant is the proposed slurry pipeline linking the plant to JSW's mines in Joda. About 80 km of the 300 km pipeline has been laid.