Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources has planned a foray in the ferrous metals industry. According to reports, Vedanta has planned to set up an integrated steel plant in Orissa with a capacity of 5 million tpa.

The Rs.12,000 crore project entails setting up of an iron ore mine with facilities to manufacture long and flat products. The finished steel production facility will be taken up by Volcan Investment, the largest shareholder in Vedanta Resources, with a foreign collaborator.

The project, still at the drawing board stage, will have a gestation period of five years.

The Sterlite group is already setting up a 1.4 million tpa greenfield alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district of Orissa.

For Orissa, this is the third largest instance of an integrated steel plant proposal. Posco of South Korea and Tata Steel have recently proposed greenfield integrated plants in the state.