Bhubaneswar, July 18: Mittal Steel today shortlisted seven locations in Orissa for its proposed 12-million-tonne steel plant.

The company, unlike Korean steel maker Posco, is not insisting on iron ore swapping clauses in the memorandum of agreement.

“We discussed seven locations. Obviously we will prefer port-based sites,” said Sanak Mishra, Mittal Steel CEO in India, who held discussions with senior government officials.

Mishra, along with two other senior executives ? R. Agarwal and S. Venkatesh ? will start visiting the sites from tomorrow.

Collectors of Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar and Ganjam districts gave power-point presentation on the seven sites located in Balagopalpur and Somnathpur in Balasore, Chudamani in Bhadrak, Khallikote and Kanisi in Ganjam and Patna and Champua in Keonjhar districts.

Most of these are adjacent to ports like Dhamra, Gopalpur and Bahabalpur. While Dhamra and Gopalpur are being developed as major ports, Bahabalpur minor port in Balasore district is yet to be developed.

Additional chief secretary-cum-agriculture production commissioner, R.N. Bohidar, who chaired the meeting in the absence of chief secretary Subas Pani, said it’s up to Mittal Steel to finalise the location.

Mittal Steel executives said the railway link and proximity to mines would also be considered while choosing the site.

However, Mishra has made it clear that the company is not keen on iron ore swapping and wants only as much ore as is required for the steel plant.

Ambani plans

Anil Ambani will visit Orissa on Friday to hold talks with the state on a 12,000-mw thermal power plant and a few other health and infotech projects.

Sources said Ambani has evinced interest to set up a 12,000-mw coal-based thermal power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 48,000 crore at Hirma in Jharsuguda district.