OREANDA-NEWS. The Centre has asked Chhattisgarh government to expedite decision in the matter related to grant of iron ore lease to special steel maker Visa Steel.

The direction comes in the wake of a high-level meeting chaired by Steel Secretary G Mohan Kumar to address bottlenecks impeding steel sector projects.

Visa Steel plans to set up a fully integrated steel plant at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh and has applied for prospecting licence (PL) for iron ore mine in village Kuruvanghat.

"On grant of PL to Visa Steel for iron ore mine in village Kuruvanghat, a company representative has told the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) that about 300 acres of land had already been acquired by the company near Raigarh. Environment Clearance and water allocation have also been secured for the project but the PL was pending with the state government," a Steel Ministry official said.

There are three kinds of mineral leases in the country-Reconnaissance Permit(RP) for preliminary prospecting of mineral, Prospecting License(PL) for proving mineral deposit and and Mining Lease(ML) for undertaking operations for winning any mineral.

The official added that as per the Ministry of Mines the matter was pending with the Chhattisgarh government since November 2013.

"Secretary Steel has desired the state government of Chhattisgarh expedite decision in the matter," the official added.

The IMG has reviewed the progress of projects in the steel sector last month with a view to expediting them.

Visa Steel has signed an MoU with the government of Chhattisgarh for setting up of a 2.5 million tonnes per annum integrated Carbon Steel Plant at Kotarlia in Raigarh District being planned with 500 MW Captive Power Plant.

As per information, the plant will be located in close proximity to the Raigarh Coalfields.

As per the company, the iron ore fines from the proposed mine shall be beneficiated and pelletised for conversion into Sponge Iron, a low cost metallic input for steel making.