Shimla, Nov 30 : Steel ministry officials Monday visited the state capital to find ways to make Himachal Pradesh a steel hub and increase its production and consumption.

Briefing reporters later, Steel Secretary Atul Chaturvedi said the per capital consumption of steel in Himachal Pradesh was 15 kg, much lower than the national average of
64 kg.

"We have plans to develop Himachal Pradesh as a steel hub. It will supply steel to neighbouring states like Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

"With a large number of hydropower projects, transmission lines and other infrastructure projects coming up in the state, the consumption of steel is bound to go up."

In February, then steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan had laid the foundation stone of a steel plant of the state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), ending months of uncertainty over the project, at Kandrori in Kangra district, some 300 km from here.

Chaturvedi said the plant would be completed in three years at a cost of Rs. 80-90 crore.

"The process is on for setting up another unit in Sirmaur district," he added.(IANS)