The Union Minister of Steel, Beni Prasad Verma has said that the foundation stone for setting up of Steel Processing Units (SPUs) were laid at Mahnar in Vaishali district of Bihar in April of 2008 and at Gaya in December of 2008 after in-principle approval of the projects by SAIL Board.    

The Minister said in the Lok Sabha on August 26 that 50 acres of land was acquired in March, 2008 for SPU at Mahnar in Vaishali District and 27.3 acres of land was acquired in November, 2008 for SPU at Gaya. Verma said, soil investigation and site survey report indicated that the land is low lying at Vaishali and significant land filing is required.    

This has an adverse impact on the financial viability of the project and the project is on hold. For SPU at Gaya, soil investigation and site survey work has been completed. The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)/ Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) have applied to Government of Bihar for conversion of Agriculture land to Industrial use. However, the agriculture land procured for the project is yet to be converted for industrial use.    

The setting up of SPU/plants is a time consuming and continuous process wherein approval/ clearances are required from a number of agencies. As a result it is not feasible to commit any time frame for start of operations of the project, the Minister said.