The expansion of JSW Steel’s Dolvi Works plant from 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 10mtpa is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal year, a company official has said.

Located on the west coast of India at Dolvi in Maharashtra, Dolvi Works is JSW Steel’s integrated steel plant having current capacity of 5mtpa.

The company is in the process of doubling its capacity to 10mtpa with an investment of about Rs 15,000 crore.

“We are aiming to complete the expansion of Dolvi Works by the second half of this fiscal (March 2021-end),” JSW Steel director-commercial marketing and corporate strategy Jayant Acharya said.

According to the company, because of the outbreak of Covid-19, the expansion of Dolvi Works was affected. The work was suspended because of multiple reasons, including non-availability of workers and travel restrictions — both domestic and international.

The company received the permission to restart activities towards the end of April 2020.

JSW Steel further said the expansion of the plan includes installing a 4.5mtpa blast furnace with a supporting 5mtpa steel melt shop and a 5mtpa hot srip mill. The plant would also have an 8mtpa pellet plant and four kilns of 600 TPD (tonnes per day) lime calcination plants (LCPs), besides a captive power plant.

“About 95 per cent work related to expansion of the plant is completed,” JSW Steel said.

With the expansion of the Dolvi Works, Sajjan Jindal-owned JSW Steel’s total steel making capacity will reach to 23.1mtpa, from 18.1mtpa at present. Besides 5 mtpa Dolvi Works, JSW Steel owns and operates a 12mtpa manufacturing facility at Vijayanagar in Karnataka, which is the largest single location steel-producing facility in India, and another 1mtpa plant in Salem, Tamil Nadu.

The company, which is in the expansion mode, has also proposed to set up a 13.2mtpa greenfield steel plant in Odisha along with a 900MW power plant for captive usage with an investment amount of Rs 53,700 crore.