SAIL incurs Rs 42,101 crore capex till July

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has incurred Rs 42,101 crore expenditure till July out of its proposed Rs 61,870 crore investment for capacity expansion during the current phase of expansion.

Steel minister Beni Prasad Verma, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, said SAIL has spent Rs 9,918 crore in Bhilai, Rs 9,679 crore in Rourkela, Rs 1,691 crore in Durgapur facility, Rs 3,662 crore in Bokatro plant and Rs 14,890 crore in its IISCO plant in Burnpur and Rs 2,261 crore in Salem plant.

SAIL is investing Rs 61,870 crore on modernisation and expansion of its existing facilities to increase crude steel production capacity to 21.4 million tonne per annum (mtpa) from 12.8 mtpa now.

Expansion at SAIL's Salem steel plant of has been completed in September, 2010. For other plants, Verma said, efforts are being made to complete progressively by 2014. "Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) is also presently expanding its capacity of liquid steel against which the new blast furnace, oxygen plant, power and water system have been commissioned and are under operation. Other major units are being commissioned during the current fiscal," Verma said.

RINL is also expanding its crude steel-making capacity to 6.3 mtpa from 3 mtpa now with a Rs 12,2910-crore investment. Verma said implementation of modernisation and expansion plans of both the steel firms have been delayed due to unforeseen soil conditions encountered, logistics problems due to the brownfield nature of the job and lack of deployment of technically competent manpower by the contractors.

"All out  efforts are being made to complete the process at the earliest," he said. To a separate question, the minister said India's steel capacity increased to 96.71 mtpa in 2012-13 from 90.87 mtpa a year earlier. India had produced 78.31 mt of steel in 2012-13.