Bhubaneswar: In a bid to help the potential investors to set up value-added downstream industries, a national investment and manufacturing zone will be developed at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district soon, announced Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while inaugurating the 7th Asia Steel Conference 2018, jointly organised by the Indian Institute of Metals and Tata Steel on Tuesday.
The zone will be spread in an area of over 160 metres and will have a self -contained ecosystem with residential, commercial and social amenities.
“Odisha is a mineral rich state with abundant resources of iron ore, coal, chrome and other minerals. The state government has been providing support for development of mineral based industries through adoption of appropriate policies. Today, Odisha is producing about half of the country’s iron ore. Because of indigenous availability of such high grade iron ore, the critical input for steel making, Odisha has a competitive advantage for production of steel,” the Chief Minister said.
From installed capacity of about 4 million tons per annum of crude steel in the year 1999-2000, the state now has 47 steel industries with the total capacity of over 33 million tons per annum which is about one fourth of the country’s total installed capacity. The pellet plants in the state have a capacity of about 29 million tons per annum, the Chief Minister added.
Over 500 experts and delegates from different Asian countries are participating in the four-day conference.
