State run Steel Authority of India said its INR 72,000 crore capacity expansion program is more or less on schedule except for the Burnpur project which is facing delay of more than one year.

Mr CS Verma said that "But for Burnpur, in all other places, expansion by and large is in time. As Burnpur is concerned, there could not be any second opinion. Burnpur is delayed more than a year.”

He said that "The delay is due to unexpected molten debris at the plant site, which expanded the scope of work of the project. The debris could not be found when soil testing was done at the 100 year old site.

The delay has also led to INR 2,000 crore cost overrun for the company which would now have to fork out INR 16,408 crore for increasing the plant capacity by 3 million tonnes per annum.

Mr Verma said that "The original plan was to complete all the expansions by March, 2013. However, this may not happen. There could a few months here and there. If you compare our expansion with RINL and other private sector companies, we are far ahead of. In all our plants, people are working in three shifts to complete the expansions.”

SAIL had embarked on INR 72,000 crore expansion plan in 2009 to increase capacity to 23.46 million tonnes per annum from 13.82 million tonnes per annum now by March, 2013. Expansions are being carried in all its five integrated facilities and three alloy steel making facility. SAIL has already placed orders worth INR 59,000 crore and has spent over INR 38,500 crore for expansion.

Source - Economic Times

(www.steelguru.com)