Bhubaneswar: Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan and steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh dedicated Jindal Steel and Power Limited's basic oxygen furnace and coal gasification plant to the nation on Saturday.

The new technology of making steel in this plant will help to produce the metal using domestic coal.

Pradhan said: "The Tata Steel has taken over the Bhushan steel plant. Now, with the presence of Tata and Jindal in the Dhenkanal district, it will give the required fillip to the economy of the region. Companies such as Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, National Aluminium Company and National Thermal Power Corporation can play a major role in eradicating poverty."

"While Jindal is bringing new technology on coal gasification, Coal India and Gas Authority of India Limited are going to introduce new technologies for the renovation of the Talcher fertiliser plant. With the introduction of new technologies, the area is going to witness an industrial revolution," he said.

Union steel minister Singh said: "Around 80 per cent of coking coal worth Rs 20,000 crore is imported by India per annum. The innovative coal gasification process created by Jindal Steel and Power Limited for making steel for the first time in India will help the state to become a steel hub in the days to come."

"We are dependent on imports (for coking coal) but the JSPL has come out with a plan which can make us reduce this dependence. The new technology will help in producing the metal using domestic coal," he said.

JSPL chairman Naveen Jindal said: "This is for the first time that any company in India is using coal gasification method to make steel. We are hopeful that after one year we will be able to run the Angul plant in full capacity. The coal gasification plant has been set up with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore. This technology of steel production has been adapted from Germany."

The company's 6MTPA plant, spread across 3,500 acres at Angul, is the largest steel manufacturing plant in the state. Other key facilities at the integrated steel plant spread over 3,500 acres include India's largest 1.5MTPA rebar mill, world's most modern 1.2MTPA plate mill, world's fastest 2.3MTPA billet caster, India's most advanced 1.7MTPA slab caster, India's largest 2.75MTPA new electric oxygen furnace and 810MW captive power plant.