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Kolkata, Sept. 23 In line with its strategy to meet the market demand for tailor-made steel products and to help increase per capita steel consumption in rural areas, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is in the process of setting up steel processing units (SPUs) at locations across the country where it does not have any production facility.

The latest such unit to be set up is the sixth SPU at Lassipora in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Union Minister for Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, earlier this week.

SAIL is investing Rs 100 crore in setting up the unit which will have a 40,000 tonnes per annum capacity TMT bar mill and a 60,000 tonnes per annum GP coils/sheet cut-to-length and corrugation line.

Speaking on the occasion, the Steel Minister urged SAIL to explore the possibility of increasing investment in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr S. K. Roongta, Chairman of SAIL, said the company’s existing distribution centre at Leh was the highest-altitude steel outlet in the world.

SAIL’s first SPU, coming up in Bettiah in Bihar at an estimated cost of Rs 236 crore, will have the capacity to produce 265,000 tonnes of TMT bars and pipes.

Another unit in Mahnar, Bihar, is being set up in two phases at a cost of around Rs 265 crore, which will produce 1.5 lakh tonnes of black and galvanised tubes and 100,000 tonnes of TMT bars.

Three SPUs are being set up in Madhya Pradesh – at Gwalior, Ujjain and Hoshangabad – involving an investment of around Rs 83 crore, Rs 100 crore and Rs 154 crore, respectively.

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