Cutting edge

Bhubaneshwar, Aug. 17: Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol) has received a large number of steel-based investment proposals from home and abroad.

If the proposals are implemented, Orissa will get investment worth Rs 30,000 crore in the next couple of years.

Ipicol has risen to prominence due to the boom in the steel industry and is set to become an important nodal agency.

Chairman Priyobrata Patnaik told The Telegraph that the agency is getting 30 new proposals on an average every month.

Most of these proposals involve setting up steel-making facilities as the state has the largest deposits of iron ore.

“Sponge iron making facilities, with a 2.3 million-tonne capacity, have come up in the past year and the current production stands at 1.8 million tonnes. This is one of the highest production volumes for sponge iron in any state,” Patnaik said.

Orissa is drawing the attention of foreign steel makers as well.

The primary reason behind this sudden spurt in investment proposals is that the Orissa government has decided to offer mining leases only to companies that will invest in a steel plant in the state.

“A company will be entitled to get a mining lease only after 25 per cent of the proposed investment is already in the ground,” Patnaik said.

Leading steel makers like Tata Steel, Ispat Industries, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel and Power and Jindal Iron & Steel have already lined up huge investment proposals to set up green facilities in the state.

Steel giant Posco of Korea and mining behemoth BHP Billiton of Australia have been in talks with Ipicol to set up a 10 million-tonne integrated steel plant in the state.

Patnaik said Ipicol is focused on putting in place a single window system to facilitate investments in the state.