New steel policy expected in six months

 Union Steel Ministry Secretary P K Misra stated that the ministry is exploring the possibility of implementing India's new "National Steel Policy" within the ',next six months,, to bring about rationality between the increased demand and supply of the hard metal.
 At present, the demand for steel in India was growing at the rate of at least 13% per annum and this was likely to grow by at least 1% more to touch the 14% mark by next year. Similarly, Misra said the volume of steel production in the country during the period had touched the 78 million tonne mark (2010) from around 30 million tonne about five years ago.
 Coming back to the importance of formulating a new National Steel Policy at the earliest, Misra said the government had already appointed a number of expert committees to review the earlier policy under present perspective and suggest new measures to enable the Ministry to announce the new policy within the next six months.
 Misra also said the problem of acquiring about 5,000 to 6,000 acre of land for the government's plan to set up a number of ultra mega steel plants in different parts of the country, coupled with non-availability of huge water bodies, and problems in getting environment clearances have become major hurdles. However, the government was serious on the issue and had been trying to resolve the problems amicably with cooperation from all quarters, the Union Secretary pointed out.
 Misra also commented on the problem of non-availability of enough iron ore for the production of required volume of steel in the country and urged the private sector industries to adopt "market-driven economic measures" like acquiring large iron ore mines in foreign countries to meet their individual demand through import.
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