Telangana to clash with Centre over Bayyaram steel plant

​Hyderabad: The Telangana government has taken a serious note of the Union government’s decision not to establish steel plant at Bayyaram in the erstwhile Khammam district on the pretext of availability of inferior quality of iron ore in the district. The TS government has decided to counter Centre’s arguments on the ore quality with documentary evidences.     

Under 13th Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act, the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre made the promise of establishing a steel plant by SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) by exploiting the iron ore mines available in Bayyaram and other reserve forest areas in the district covered with agency area.  

State Industry and Mining department officials said the government had taken a strong exception to the Centre filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the task force had given an adverse report  on the proposed steel plant in Telangana. The affidavit stated that the studies had shown the presence of least quantities of iron ore and of poor quality and hence there was no way the project could come up at the place.

Officials said the TS government had already conducted its own study with the help of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) on the quality of iron ore available in the mining reserves spread in Bayyaram, Garla and Nelakondapally mandals. The iron ore quality is inferior only in some places. The officials maintained that the available ore reserves are enough to set up a medium-level steel plant. The establishment of the plant will also help invite investments in setting up of ancillary units in the private sector and create huge employment.  

The officials said the government is preparing a detailed report based on the outcome of the GSI study and submit the same to the Centre and also to the apex court. The report will counter the Centre’s argument on the quality of the iron ore and the feasibility of the establishment of the steel plant.  Bayyaram mining reserves witnessed a big political controversy in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh also. 

The last Chief Minister of undivided AP N Kiran Kumar Reddy cancelled the lease of Bayyaram iron ore mines spread across three mandals in Khammam district in June 2012. Around 1.4 lakh acres of the land was leased to a joint venture of the AP Minerals Development Corporation Ltd (APMDCL) and Rakshana Steels, allegedly owned by the member of former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy family. 

On the insistence of the TRS party during the intensified Telangana movement, he had cancelled all the mining leases in Bayyaram.