Mittal commits for investments in India

Casting aside all doubts over his investment plans in India in the wake of Singur crisis, Steel tycoon and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arcelor Mittal, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal said his company would invest in India without any hesitation.

Ruling out review of Arcelor Mittal's plan for further investment in India, Mittal said: “One unfortunate case of Singur cannot be a model for the world. One can face this kind of problem anywhere in the world. One particular project can face this kind of opposition from people. But the country as a whole is interested in growing.”

Mittal, however, hoped that a reasonable solution admissible to all would come soon over farmers' land allotment issue in Singur, where Tata Motors is facing opposition to its low-cost car 'Nano' project.

Speaking about his own project in India, Mittal said his company would invest $20 billion over the next 10 years to set up two steel plants in Jharkhand and Orissa to yield about 25 million tonnes of steel in total.

However, he said: "Our projects in Jharkhand and Orissa are facing 50 per cent cost overruns due to delay in mining and other approvals. The total cost of these projects may rise up to 30 billion dollars."

Mittal urged the governments of Orissa and Jharkhand to expedite the approvals so that the company could avert the excessive loss and execute the plan with pace.

"The delays are not because people do not want; there are delays because there is process delay. We have signed MoU long before. We expected things to move faster, it has not moved faster. We don't know when we start the project. We are in the process of expediting all the approvals," Mittal said.

In spite of these delays, Arcelor Mittal is sure of its growth prospects in India and thus looking for more greenfield opportunities. "We believe steel demand will continue to grow 3-5 percent over the next 10 years," Mittal said.

Mittal's comment came at a time when India Incs have expressed dissatisfaction over the Singur issue and said they would reconsider investments in West Bengal if the situation does not improve soon.