Puducherry, Jan 31 Steel rerolling mills should adopt biomass fuel in their units to save energy and for efficient utilisation, a top official in the Union Steel Ministry today said.

There was every need to adopt efficient technology both for energy saving and its efficient utilisation, Union Steel Joint Secretary Udai Pratap Singh told reporters here at an event.

Stating that there was a paradigm shift from fossil to biomass fuel in the sector, he stressed the need for innovation in the field of technology in order to match up with other countries and ensure quality.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Vaithilingam said use of bio fuels or bio mass in steel rerolling mills would help the industries overcome the shortage of power to run the units.

Hereafter, he said the administration would not allow any new steel plants to come up in the union territory. The existing steel industries should therefore adopt innovative technology and effect improvement in energy efficiency.

National Project Coordinator of the UNDP (GEF Project)G Mishra said India has around 1,200 working re-rolling units and more than 90 per cent of them were quite old and used obsolete technologies, thereby consuming very high energy per tonne of production.

The UNDP project would provide advice to the mills on introduction of low cost technology solutions for energy efficiency.