BS reported that Orissa’s state steel & mines department has served a showcause notice on Gurgaon based Maharastra Seamless Ltd for unsatisfactory progress on its proposed steel project in the state for which the company had signed MoU on August 26th 2004.

The department has threatened to scrap the MoU if the company fails to offer a suitable response clarifying the reasons for the inordinate delay in project execution within 30 days.

Maharastra Seamless proposed to set up a 0.48 million tonne per annum steel plant at Jajpur at a cost of INR 450 crore.

The issue of showcause notice to Maharastra Seamless may well signal the beginning of the crackdown on non serious players by the steel & mines department. The MoUs of all major steel players including POSCO India, Essar Steel, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, Visa Steel and JSL Steel had expired and the renewal of their pacts were under the consideration of the state government.

The state has signed 50 MoUs with various companies in the steel sector envisaging total investment of INR 230,000 crore and steel capacity of 83.66 million tonne per annum. Out of this, investments worth INR 56,090.34 crore have been grounded as on March 31st 2011.

(Sourced from BS)