Odisha’s Chief Minister, Mohan Charan Majhi, recently announced that JSW and POSCO will jointly establish a large steel plant in the Patna area of Keonjhar district. The estimated investment for this project is approximately Rs 40,000 crore. Majhi expressed his pride in fulfilling his promise to bring a major steel plant to the region. He shared at a public rally in Champua, “It was my dream to set up a steel plant in Keonjhar district, and by God’s grace, I have been able to fulfill this dream as Chief Minister.”
In addition to the plant in the Patna area, Majhi also revealed plans to promote the steel industry in other parts of Keonjhar district, with a total investment of over Rs 100 crore. Earlier this year, during the ‘Utkarsh Odisha-Make in Odisha Conference’ on January 28, JSW Group, led by Sajjan Jindal, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government to build a 5 million tonne per annum steel plant in Keonjhar.
In October of the previous year, JSW and South Korea’s POSCO also signed an MoU to establish an integrated steel plant in India, initially targeting a production capacity of 5 million tonnes per year. However, the precise location of the plant has not yet been disclosed.
Additionally, Chief Minister Majhi announced a grant of Rs 4 crore for the construction of a three-storey building at Chandra Sekhar College in Champua. This follows a previous commitment by the state’s Higher Education Minister, Suryabanshi Suraj, who pledged Rs 3.3 crore for the college’s development. Majhi also inaugurated a five-day regional agri-machinery expo in Keonjhar, emphasizing the crucial role of agriculture in the state, where over 60% of the population relies on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood.
