Phase-1 of Kalinga Nagar plant by 2014: Tata Steel

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The proposed six-million-tonne steel plant which Tata Steel is setting up at Kalinga Nagar, Orissa, will concentrate entirely on flat steel products, catering to the needs of the automotive industry and white goods.

The first phase is expected to be commissioned by February 2014. The first phase will see a total investment of up to Rs 25,000 crore, of which the steel maker has already invested over Rs 10,000 crore.

“The entire six-million-tonne-per-annum production at the Kalinga Nagar plant will be flat products. Phase-I of the plant is expected to be commissioned by January/February 2014 and this would see an investment of Rs 25,000 crore. Work is going on at the site and mostly foundation work is in progress. We had discussions with the chief minister and I apprised him on the status of our projects at Kalinga Nagar and Gopalpur,” Tata Steel Managing Director H M Nerurkar told reporters after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here yesterday.

Tata Steel has already re-settled 915 out of the 1,200-odd affected families at the company’s rehabilitation colonies at Gobarghati, Tirjanga and Sunsilo.

Asked on the company’s proposed industrial park at Gopalpur, Nerurkar said: “We have got the CRZ (Coastal Regulatory Zone) clearance for the industrial park and hope to get the environmental clearance by the end of October this year. The number of investors for the industrial park is growing considering that Tata Steel is the anchor investor for the project. The total potential for investments in the industrial park ranges from Rs 10,000 to 15,000 crore.”

He, however, declined to name the investors.

Tata Steel has lined up two projects — a 50,000-tonne ferro alloys plant and a 400,000-tonne bar mill in the Gopalpur industrial park. It would invest Rs 1,000 crore on these two projects which would initially create an employment for about 1,000.

The steelmaker had acquired 3,700 acres (including 500 acres for the rehabilitation colony) at Gopalpur in south Orissa in the mid-1990s for setting up a 10-million-tonne steel plant. It later shelved the project and the land was lying vacant.