NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved the strategic disinvestment of equity shareholding of Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), MECON, Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) and two Odisha state government PSUs in Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) to a strategic buyer.The buyer is to be identified through a two-stage auction procedure.MMTC holds 49.8%, NMDC 10.1%, MECON 0.7% and Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) 0.7% in Neelachal Ispat Nigam. Two Odisha state government PSUs, which include Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha (IPICOL) 12% and Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) 20.5%, are also part of the joint venture firm.NINL is a joint venture company, in which four central public sector enterprises MMTC, NMDC, Bhel and MECON, and two Odisha state government PSUs - IPICOL and OMC - are shareholders.The proposed strategic disinvestment of NINL would unlock resources to be used to finance the social sector and developmental programmes of the government.It is also expected that the successful strategic buyer may bring in new management, technology, investment for the growth of the company and may use innovative methods for the development of the business operations of the company, which may generate more employment opportunities.The government has set an ambitious target of raising Rs 1.05 lakh crore from stake sale in state-run companies in the current fiscal year but has raised only Rs 17,364.3 crore . It has plans to undertake strategic sales in a clutch of companies including energy company BPCL , which is expected to raise up to Rs 80,000 crore but the progress on this has been slow.