Can large public-sector industrial projects act as instruments of development in LWE-affected regions? Illustrate with the Nagarnar steel plant.

Left Wing Extremism (LWE) grows where the state is absent and development lags. NMDC's 3 MTPA greenfield integrated steel plant at Nagarnar, Bastar [2], built at over ₹23,800 crore [1], shows that large PSU projects can drive development. They do so only when local people share the gains.

How PSU projects can drive development: Nagarnar

• Jobs: the plant is expected to employ thousands, both in the plant and in ancillary and downstream units [1].
• Local value addition: iron ore mined in Bastar is turned into steel locally instead of leaving the region as raw ore.
• Connectivity: the plant was dedicated together with the Antagarh–Taroki rail line and the Jagdalpur–Dantewada doubling, which improve connectivity in tribal areas [1].
• Energy infrastructure: the 2026 NMDC–GAIL Gas pact brings a 130-km Damanjodi–Nagarnar pipeline to the 2-MT pellet plant [5]. It extends the eastern gas network built under PM Urja Ganga [6].
• State presence: CSR (Section 135, Companies Act) and District Mineral Foundation funds pay for schools and health care in places the Maoists portray as abandoned.

Limits

• Long gestation: the first coke oven battery was commissioned only in 2022 [4], years after the project began.
• Alienation: land acquisition in Fifth Schedule areas causes resentment when gram sabhas under PESA are bypassed.
• Enclave risk: skilled jobs can go to outsiders, leaving locals with only casual work.
• Ownership uncertainty: in 2020 the Cabinet approved a strategic sale of the entire government stake [3]. The government still held 60.79% at listing [2], and this feeds local fears of privatisation.
• Narrow green gains: gas replaces furnace oil only at the pellet stage [5], and steelmaking remains coke-based.

Way forward

• Reserve jobs for Bastar's youth and fund ITI skilling for them.
• Obtain genuine gram sabha consent and share benefits with project-affected families.
• Extend city gas distribution from the Nagarnar metering station [5] to households.
• Write social commitments into any disinvestment contract.

Nagarnar shows that PSU projects can bring jobs, rail links and gas to the remotest districts. They become instruments of development, not just investment, only when paired with security, PESA-based consent and local skilling. Done this way, they fulfil Article 46's promise to advance the economic interests of Scheduled Tribes, and they weaken LWE at its roots.