Steel major SAIL said it was going ahead with its joint venture with Japanese steelmaker Kobe steel to set up an iron ore nugget plant in Durgapur at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore for which environment assessment study is on.

“The SAIL-Kobe Steel JV in Durgapur is on. This will be the second such project in the world after USA. The JV agreement has been finalised”, SAIL chairman C S Verma told reporters here.

He said it would take five to six months to complete the environment assessment.

Verma said the proposed plant would produce 0.5 million tonnes of iron ore nugget per annum.

Turning to the modernisation of Burnpur-based IISCO steel plant, Verma said post-modernisation the plant would have a capacity of 2.5 mt.

The sinter plant at IISCO has gone into production, while the coke oven plant has become operational. Wire rod mill in the plant has gone on stream for which slabs were being sourced from SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant.

The blast furnace and converter would now be commissioned and the modernisation would be completed in December this year, he said.

Asked about SAIL’s proposed joint venture with RITES to reopen Kulti works, he said “We have yet to register the land. No firm investment decision has been taken.