Desalination plant key to Tata Steel's project

Even as Tata Steel rolls out its ambitious Industrial Park project at Gopalpur, on the coast of Ganjam in south Orissa, tomorrow, the setting up of a desalination plant to overcome the water crisis there has become crucial for the success of the project.

The company proposes to set up 20 to 25 million gallon per day desalination plant to meet the major part of the water need of the units to come up in the complex. The cost of the project is estimated in the range of Rs 500 to 600 crore.

The company has been looking for technology partner for the project for last one had half years and short listed 4 to 5 firms. A final decision in this regard will be taken soon, said the sources.

One of the reasons why Tata Steel shelved its plan to set up a 10 million tonne steel plant at Gopalpur in mid 1990s after acquiring 3700 acres (including 500 acres for the rehabilitation colony) was unavailability of water to meet the requirement of a steel mill of that size and the situation has not changed much since then.

For its steel project, the company had planned to get water from Pipalpanga, about 100 km away, by building a dam on river Padma (a tributary of Rushikulya). But it was found to be neither cost effective nor secure as the pipeline carrying water had to run through a water-stressed area exposing it to the vagaries of local villagers.

With the project site only 15 from the Gopalpur beach, using sea water through the desalination process was one option. But the cost of technology available then was too prohibitive, says a Tata Steel official. “Over the last few years, there have been rapid changes in the technology and the cost of converting sea water into normal water has come down significantly”, he added.So as Tata Steel now plans to set up an Industrial Park on the land acquired for the steel plant, it has made setting up of a desalination plant an integral part of the project.

Apart from desalination plant, the company is looking at other options to augment water supply. Ganjam district usually has heavy rainfall in monsoon, but most of the rain water flows into sea leaving the area high and dry in non-monsoon period. If rain water could be preserved through check dams or water harvesting structures it will not only augment water availability but also recharge the ground water sources, said the Tata official.Similarly, building an in-bed storage facility on Rushikulya river and getting water from a small lake at Tampra are other options being explored to supplement the water supply to the industrial complex.

Meanwhile, Tata Steel has decided to encourage industries with low water requirement to set up shops in the Industrial Park. The complex will mostly house units in steel downstream, specialty and bulk chemicals and engineering.

As the anchor tenant for the complex, the company is setting up two projects- a 50,000 tonne per annum ferroalloys plant and 400,000 tonne per annum bar mill there at a combined investment of Rs 1000 crore.