SAIL to pump Rs. 1,50,000 crore by 2025.

SAIL, the country's largest steel maker, has charted investment of Rs. 1,50,000 crore till 2025 to ramp up steel production from 24 million tonnes to 50 million tonnes.

'We have prepared an investment plan of Rs. 1,50,000 crore till 2025 to meet our vision to increase the steel production capacity to 50 million tonnes from 23-24 million tonnes now,' SAIL chairman CS Verma said recently on the sidelines of dedication of Rs. 16,000 crore modernisation of IISCO plant by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The capacity of the plant of crude steel had been ramped up to 2.5 million tonnes. But, by 2025 the capacity will be further ramped up to 5.6 million tonnes in phases, Verma said.

Verma said that another major modernisation project in the 2025 vision document of SAIL was in the Durgapur Steel Plant 'whose capacity will be taken up from 2.2 million tonnes to nine million tonnes.'

The total investment for West Bengal would work out to Rs. 40,000 crore in both the plants, he said.

Speaking about iron-nugget plant in collaboration with Kobe of Japan, he said that the project was delayed as a new improved technology was being awaited.

Another fresh MoU will be signed with Kobe for the upgraded technology. The project will come up at Durgapur and use the Japanese steel maker's patented iron making technology.

ET