Hyderabad: Taking the first step in realising the Rs.1-lakh-crore integrated steel plant by ArcelorMittal, the Andhra Pradesh government will notify limits for the port to be built by the steel giant for captive use.
The Cabinet, which will meet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, will clear the notification of a three-kilometre seafront with a hinterland of 2,200 acres near Nakkapalli, 70-km south of Visakhapatnam.
The notification would have been delayed further if education minister and Telugu Desam general secretary Nara Lokesh had not intervened, according to sources.
The proposed captive port falls in the exclusive limits of the jinxed KGPL twin-port SEZ complex, now owned by the Aurobindo Group. Though the project was in limbo and never took off in the last 25 years, it continued to enjoy the exclusive limits up to the Rambilli Naval Base near Nakkapalli preventing other players from taking up similar projects.
“Aurobindo raised objections over allowing another port in its exclusive limits but Lokesh gave a stern warning to the company to make it fall in line,” a senior official told Deccan Chronicle. The government at one stage decided to invoke the national interest clause to cut down the exclusive limits but Aurobindo fell in line, he pointed out.
The government also decided to take 700 acres in the bulk drug park proposed by Aurobindo to be taken up with the Centre’s financial assistance and give it to Arcelor Mittal’s integrated steel factory. The total land to be allocated to the steel plant will be 2,200 acres and the steel giant agreed to buy land at Rs.50 lakh per acre.
As per the company’s proposal, the first phase will be taken up with a capacity of 7.3 million metric tonnes per annum and would be scaled up by another 10.5 MMTPA in the second phase. The investment will be Rs 55,000 cr for first phase and Rs 80,000 cr in the second phase with an expected employment of 20,000 and 35,000 respectively.
The steel giant also proposed to build a captive port to handle 50 MTPA in the two phases with an investment outlay of Rs 10,000 crore.
