AK Pandey addresses the seminar in Ranchi on Friday. (Hardeep Singh)

Ranchi is no stranger to technical seminars on iron and steel of both national and international levels.

But what sets apart the two-day national seminar that kicked off at Mecon Community Hall on Friday is that it is in Hindi. In fact, this is the first time that such an event is being conducted in Hindi.

The seminar on scopes and challenges to meet the growing demand of iron and steel in view of the national target as defined in Vision-2020 has been organised by Mecon Limited in association with the Union steel ministry. Around 120 delegates from across the country are attending it.

Delivering the key-note address in flawless Hindi, A.K. Pandey, director (raw materials and logistics), SAIL, pointed out that raw materials played a great role in any industry and defined the growth rate in a competitive scenario. “But as far as raw materials for the steel industry are concerned, degradation of environment, displacement of population, problems of land acquisition and lack of proper transportation network pose serious problems in mining (of minerals) in states like Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh,” he added.

Strict regulatory process, infrastructure limitations for extraction of minerals, poor connectivity and limitation of availability of cocking coal were some of the challenges, Pandey elaborated. “Easy sanction of projects by introduction of a single-window system, special mining zone and amendment of the forest act within that zone may help solve the problem and achieve target,” he suggested.

Earlier, K.K. Mehrotra, CMD, Mecon Limited, also touched on some of these aspects and hoped that the delegates would suggest some fruitful measures.

Ashok Kumar, the representative of the Union steel ministry, lauded the organisers for conducting the seminar in Hindi as it helped promote the national language.