India’s minister for petroleum, natural gas, and steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, launched the country’s ‘Mission Purvodaya’ over the weekend in Kolkata, West Bengal.
‘Mission Purvodaya’ is aimed at enabling India’s goal of become a $5trillion economy with a general focus on the steel sector in the east of the country, in particular, through the creation of integrated steel hubs.
“The eastern region is likely to add 75pc to India’s steel capacity,” Dharmendra Pradhan said, at the launch of Mission Purvodaya on Saturday. The forecast put out by the steel ministry has a total of 300mn mt in capacity for India by 2030-31.
Of this, 200mn mt will come from states in east India, like Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and the northern part of Andhra Pradesh, all under Mission Purvodaya.
These states also collectively hold 80% of the country’s iron ore and all the nation’s coking coal is mined here. Significant portions of chromite, bauxite and dolomite reserves also exist in the area.
Mission Purvodaya will see the government set up Greenfield steel plants to increase production capacity. Development of steel clusters near centres with high demand will play a significant role in the steel-driven economic push.