SO MANY PEOPLE? Chief minister Arjun Munda seems to be sharing his pleasant surprise at the huge turnout (top) with deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto and CMD of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd at a function to inaugurate the second unit of the company’s steel plant at Patratu, 45km from Ranchi, on Wednesday. Telegraph pictures

Patratu (Ramgarh), Sept. 28: Chief minister Arjun Munda inaugurated a new unit at JSPL’s steel plant at Patratu with Naveen Jindal, the CMD of the company that is among the first big ticket investors in Jharkhand, using the occasion to appeal for more land to expand operations.

“I appeal to villagers to part with their land so that more units can be set up,” said the Congress MP from Kurukshetra at the function at Patratu, 45km from the state capital, in front of a gathering of over 5,000 local residents and a host of senior politicians and government officials, including former chief minister Shibu Soren and deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto.

Jindal Power & Steel Ltd, which took over ailing Bihar Alloys & Steel Limited (BASL), spread over 550 acre in Patratu, in 2007, needs more land in the adjoining areas to expand operations.

“This is another milestone for the state as far as industrialisation is concerned. This will result into local value addition of minerals and will also ensure better use of human resources,” Munda, the chief guest of the function, said.

JSPL signed MoUs with Jharkhand in 2005 and 2007 to set up steel plants at Patratu (6MTPA) in Ramgarh and Asanboni (5MTPA) in East Singhbhum, respectively.

In Patratu, JSPL has managed to buy 300 acre more from villagers, but will need around 2,000 acre in all. In Asanboni, the company is stuck after having bought 150 acre from local villagers.

With today’s commissioning of a 1.2 MTPA bar mill, the Patratu plant now has a capacity of 1.8MTPA together with the existing 0.6MTPA wire rod mill which was commissioned in early 2010. The plant is expected to operate at full capacity by 2015.

“At present, iron billets, the main raw material for the bar mill, is being brought from our Chhattisgarh unit. We need more land to set up coke oven, smelter, blast furnace, steel melting shop, etc, to manufacture billets locally,” Jindal said.

JSPL plans to invest over Rs 20,000 crore in the Patratu plant alone and hopes to generate 10,000 jobs. As of now, it employees around 2,000 people at the plant designed to produce TMT bars (of width 8mm to 40mm), angles (from 50x50mm to 90x90mm), besides other products.

JSPL wants to set up an integrated steel plant of 5 MTPA at Asanboni under Potka block of East Singhbhum by 2016 if all goes well. Also, on the anvil are power plants of 1,320MW capacity each at Dumka and Godda.

Among the others who graced today’s function were Speaker C.P. Singh, science and technology minister and local MLA C.P. Choudhary, former deputy chief minister Stephen Marandi, chief secretary S.K. Choudhary, principal secretary to governor Sudhir Tripathy, energy secretary Vimal Kirti Singh, road construction secretary N. N. Sinha, principal secretary to chief minister D.K. Tiwary, Ramgarh deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal and district superintendent of police Aneesh Gupta.

Speaking on the occasion, Soren said today’s commissioning was a matter of pride for Jharkhand. “The plant will be a centre of employment and other amenities for the locals. I appeal to the locals to work hard and train themselves to reap the benefits of development,” he said.