Nagpur: The state govt signed yet another memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Surjagad Ispat Private Limited for its project in Gadchiroli at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in Davos. On Monday, the company signed a MoU to expand its steel plant project at Wadlapeth village in the district, leading to a Rs20,000 crore investment, compared with Rs10,000 crore proposed earlier. Surjagad Ispat had featured in the list of MoUs signed by the state govt in earlier WEFs too. At that time it had announced the original plan entailing Rs10,000 crore investment for a steel project in Gadchiroli.Surjagad Ispat now plans to acquire 1,000 acre additional land in the district for the new project, which would take its projected steel plant capacity to two million tonne a year, compared with one million tonne planned earlier. The company has done the groundwork and also secured environmental clearance for the first phase of the steel project. It now looked forward to an assurance of raw material supply from the state govt. Iron ore is the basic raw material used in steelmaking. An assured supply would be a major milestone for going ahead with the project development, sources said, as part of the deal.Surjagad Ispat was among several other companies eyeing Gadchiroli as the site for proposed steel plants. Rather, the entire sector here is expecting an assurance for raw material supply, which could also be in the form of an agreement with the state govt for sourcing iron ore, sources said.
