Arcelor Mittal seeks to shift location of Jharkhand project

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Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker wants to shift the location of its planned 12 million tonne steel plant within Jharkhand, a top company official said on Thursday.

Arcelor Mittal chose Jharkhand's Khunti and Gumla districts to set up a steel plant, but has struggled to acquire land which has delayed its plans to start production to 2014 from 2012 earlier.

Now the company has zeroed in on Bokaro in Jharkhand to set up the steel project where India's largest domestic steelmaker Steel Authority of India has a plant.

"We have sought water and other necessary infrastructure clearance from Jharkhand industries department to set up our project," TS Prasad, Arcelor Mittal's Jharkhand project in charge told Reuters.

"If we get water and other required infrastructure then we will shift the greenfield project."

Arcelor Mittal also has a plan to make a steel plant in neighbouring Orissa of similar capacity and early this year said it has plans to make a 6 million tonne steel plant in the southern state of Karnataka as well.