Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for a 13.2 million tonne (MT) greenfield steel plant proposed to be developed by Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel near Paradip on Friday.

The steel complex, entailing an investment of Rs 65,000 crore, is the largest among the industrial ventures launched so far by CM Patnaik in the run-up to the Odisha Assembly poll and the general election in terms of investment and job creation. JSW said the potential employment, direct and indirect, from the steel plant, associated industries and infrastructure, is likely to be 30,000.

The integrated steel complex will come up at Dhinkia Nuagaon and Gadakujanga under Erasama Tehsil, Jagatsinghpur district. The Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO) has handed over 2,958 acres of land to JSW to set up the facility with 30 per cent of the total project land to be dedicated for preservation of forests and water bodies.

Much of the project land was earmarked for Posco’s ill-fated 12 MT steel plant for which the Korean steel giant had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Odisha in 2005. Following protests from land losers and environmentalists, the project never took off and Posco formally withdrew from it in 2017.

JSW, which is expanding steel capacity to 38.5 MT by FY25 from 29.7 MT, has envisaged going up to 50 MT by 2030. The company had earlier guided it would take brownfield expansion of existing plants in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha (Bhushan Power & Steel) to reach the 50 MT target. On Friday, the company indicated that the greenfield plant near Paradip, which houses a deep draft sea port, will come up in multiple phases.

In a communique to the stock exchanges, the company informed that apart from the steel plant, there will be a captive power plant to generate and supply power requirements of the facility, captive jetties with cargo-handling capacity, cement manufacturing unit and modern township and other components.

JSW said the integrated complex has been envisaged as a one-of-its-kind world-class green technology steel manufacturing facility. The company had earlier indicated that it would set up a 4 MT green steel plant in two phases in Maharashtra.

Apart from CM Patnaik, the inauguration ceremony was attended by JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal, his son Parth Jindal, Pratap Keshari Deb, minister of industries department, Hemant Sharma, principal secretary, industries department, among others.

Taking to X, Jindal wrote: “Today is a very special day in the life of JSW Steel as we lay the foundation stone of the long cherished steel plant at Paradip in the state of Odisha. This would be the first steel plant with the largest capacity of 13.2 MT to start with.”