Raipur, Jun 1 (IANS): The National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (NMDC) Tuesday signed an agreement for setting up India's largest blast furnace of 4,506 cubic metres capacity for its upcoming steel plant in Chhattisgarh, a company statement said here.

The NMDC, which is India's largest iron ore producer in the public sector, signed the contract with Tata Projects Limited, Danieli Corus Netherland and Danieli Corus India at its headquarters in Hyderabad.

NMDC chairman-cum-managing director Rana Som was present on the occasion when senior officials of the companies signed the deal on behalf of the consortium. The NMDC said it has faith on the consortium that it will commission the blast furnace within a period of 33 months which will have state-of-the-art features.

"The blast furnace will be designed for production of 9,900 tonnes per day," the statement added.

The statement quoted the Som as saying that the proposed 3 million tonne per annum (MTPA) Chhattisgarh plant would be the fastest moving steel project among all greenfield and brown field projects in the country.