Mittal Steel is likely to sign within the next two months, an agreement with the Orissa government for setting up a steel plant at an investment of $7 billion.
"The MoU would be through once Mittal Steel acquires 3,000 acres of land it has sought from the State government," Orissa Minister for Steel and Mines Padmanabha Behara said in New Delhi on Monday.
Indicating that the steel giant might not use the Bhambra port as was being reported, he said Mittal is likely to use the upcoming port in Gopalpur being built by the Orissa government.
After acquiring French steel major Arcelor, L N Mittal had in July said Mittal Steel would set up a 12 million tonne steel plant in Orissa. He had announced similar plans for Jharkhand in October last.
The Orissa government had shown seven possible sites to an Arcelor Mittal expert team. To speed up things, the steel giant has appointed MECON as consultant to select a site for the project.
The possible sites are Khallikot in Ganjam, Basudevpur in Bhadrak, Balgopalpur in Balasore and Patna in Keonjhar.
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