Steel maker JSW Steel Ltd will complete the first phase of its project in West Bengal's Salboni in three years, its managing director Sajjan Jindal said here Monday.

'We plan to start work in another six months for the steel project in Salboni, provided we are given adequate security, which the chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) assured me today (Monday). We propose to complete the first phase in three years,' Jindal told reporters emerging from a meeting with Bhattacharjee at the state secretariat Writers' Buildings.

The company is constructing a 10 million tonne steel plant in the state for an investment of Rs.350-billion (over $7 billion) at Salboni in West Midnapore district.

The first phase will have a capacity of three million tonnes. JSW would be investing Rs.12,000 crore, Jindal said.

JSW Steel, which in November tied up with Japanese steel giant JFE Steel Corp for technology sharing for the Salboni project, may sell as much as 40 percent in the arm, JSW Steel Bengal, to the Japanese partner, Jindal said.

'We are working on how much JFE would pick up in the project; in all likelihood they would start with 26 percent initially and go up to 40 percent eventually,' Jindal said.

The signing of the deal with JFE was closely followed by a visit of a JFE team to Salboni.