Tata Steel to start work on ferro-alloys plant in March

Tata Steel expects to start work on its ferro-alloys plant at Gopalpur in Ganjam district of Orissa by March 2015, when it also expects to commission the first phase of its 6 million tonnes per annum steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in the state's Jajpur district.

Tata Steel has planned a stage-wise commissioning of the 6-million-tonne project, the company's second greenfield steel plant after Jamshedpur.

''The first phase of our Kalinganagar steel project will be commissioned by March 2015. We are also going to start work on the first unit of the ferro-alloys plant by March next year,'' Tata Steel managing director T V Narendra said after meeting chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday.

Narendran called on chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday to apprise him on the progress of Tata Steel's projects at Kalinganagar and Gopalpur.

Tata Steel is the anchor tenant for the Gopalpur Special Economic Zone (SEZ) spread on an area of 2,952 acres. It had earlier announcedplans to set up a 50,000-tonne per annum ferrochrome plant and one 400,000 tpa rebar mill spread over an area of 400 acres there.

The company had committed an investment of Rs1,000 crore on these two projects - Rs200-250 crore on the ferro-alloys plant and Rs750 to Rs800 crore on the rebar mill.

To draw investors to the SEZ, Tata Steel is planning to have road shows in South East Asia region. Investors would be wooed across sectors like IT, chemicals, electronics, textile and gems and jewellery.

''In the next 2-3 months, we will be conducting road shows in South-East Asia to attract investors for the Gopalpur SEZ. Our team has already been to Singapore and Thailand to pull investors. We are presently getting the master plan ready for the SEZ by Jurong (Singapore-based consultancy firm),'' Narendran said.

The Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) acquired land of around 3,000 acres for an integrated steel mill originally proposed by Tata Steel in 1995.

Narendran said the shutdown of the Noamundi iron ore mine in Jharkhand has not affected Tata Steel's operatons.

The Noamundi mine meets around a third of Tata Steel's total iron ore requirement of 15 million tonne a year. Tata Steel went for a shutdown of the mine last week on orders from the Jharkhand government that followed the centre's July 18 directive, asking states to clamp down on mines operating under second or third deemed renewals of leases.

''We are sorting out the issue with the Jharkhand government. There is no dearth of iron ore in the country. We are carrying out operations on available inventory. Besides, we have also placed orders for some imports,'' he added.

Tata Steel chairman Cyrus P Mistry said the company was focused not only on the execution of plant facilities but also on addressing the developmental needs and aspirations of the communities around the project in health, education, livelihood and skill-building.

The first phase is likely to generate employment of over 1,500 people directly and 3,000 indirectly. At the inception stage, over 36,000 people are engaged in construction, of whom 80 per cent are from the state, he said.