BS Reporter / Bhubaneswar July 24, 2008, 0:51 IST

Tata Steel expects to resume construction work for its six million tonnes integrated greenfield steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa by the end of this month.

"Our greenfield project in Kalinga Nagar is in good shape and we hope to start the construction work by July-end. We have already placed orders for construction equipment worth Rs 6,000 crore and these equipment will be sourced from China, Germany and from domestic suppliers," said B Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel.

We were standing in Sarova village, not far from Raipur, the capital of mineral-rich Chhattisgarh. All around us we could see some black stuff scattered on the ground. The villagers told us that the sponge iron factory owner was giving this away as a 'gift' and would even transport it to their lands. They refused to say if they were being paid to dump this reject on their land. But they did whisper to me that the land on which we were standing, laden with black reject belonged to the brother of the sarpanch. The sarpanch they said was earlier against the factory's pollution.

BACKSTAGE
Rakteem Katakey & Ajay Modi / New Delhi July 21, 2008, 0:19 IST

Steel Secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey's appointment as petroleum secretary, a fortnight before the incumbent secretary retires, has raised a few eyebrows since the government rarely appoints top officials so much in advance. But all those who know Pandey agree he's unlikely to play favourites.

The virtual world of secondlife.com is serious business. Last month steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, ceo of ArcelorMittal, held a regular shareholders" meeting in Luxembourg and linked it with the digital continent. The meeting was held to give shareholders an opportunity to meet and talk to Mittal. Avatars in secondlife could see in streaming video ArcelorMittal chairman being interviewed and

DH News Service, Bagalkot: Goa-based company Tungabhadra Minerals Company will set-up a Rs 25,000 crore steel plant in the district, Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani stated here on Sunday. Nirani told reporters that in the first phase the company had agreed to invest Rs 10,000 crore and would be providing jobs for nearly 50,000 people. He said a team of senior officials from the company were already searching for a suitable place in the district to set up this mega plant.

NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Coal is learnt to have approved the allocation of 23 coking and non-coking coal blocks to leading steel, cement and power producers, including Essar, Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), Grasim, Monnet and Ispat. While four coking coal blocks have been allocated in Madhya Pradesh, the remaining 19 non-coking blocks are in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, according to official sources here. This was decided at the meeting of the Screening Committee of the Coal Ministry held last week.

Posco of South Korea, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, has moved to strengthen the security of its coal supplies by joining ArcelorMittal and China's Citic on the share register of Macarthur Coal. The three groups together now control almost half of the A$4.2bn (US$4bn) Australian group, making it virtually impossible for one of them to launch a successful takeover bid for Macarthur without the others' agreement.