Rs 2000 cr Titanium project to be set up in Ganjam

The Ganjam district administration had ordered stoppage of work of the project, being set up by Titanium Products Private Ltd (TTPL), a joint venture company of Kolkata based Saraf Agencies and Russian government, after a clash between two groups in Kanamana village over labour engagement in the ground levelling work.

A meeting was held among the district administration, company officials and the land losers at Chhatrapur, the district headquarter town, on Saturday where it was decided to resume the construction work.

The meeting decided to provide labour intensive works to the project affected people on priority basis. While the district administration will prepare the list of land losers, the company will issue them identity cards.

"The company agreed to the proposal and we allowed them to start work once again",  said additional district magistrate Sashi Bhusan Padhy.     

Altogether 256 families of four villages, Sri Ramchandrapur, Tikiriaberhampur, Kanamana and Chandrapur near Chhatrapur are affected by the proposed project. The company has already acquired the required 250 acres of land for the first phased of the project which envisages capacity of 40,000 tonne of titanium dioxide per annum.

"We agreed with the proposals of the district administration to provide labour works to the land-losers on priority basis during leveling of the ground and civil construction", said PVS Mani, the president of Saraf Agencies Private Ltd (SAPL).

The work has resumed at a slow pace and it is expected to gather momentum in the next few days, he said. The company has targeted to complete the work by 2009.  

Besides titanium dioxide, the company aimed to produce 10,000  tonne per annum titanium sponge, 10,000 tonne titanium slag.  The project will also manufacture 69,000 tonne of high speed pig iron per annum.

The project will come up in phases with the first phase expected to commence production   in 2012-13 and second phase five years after.  The date for lay of foundation stone for the project is yet to be decided. 

In the second phase, the project required another 300 acres of land, which includes 225 acres in private hold. The process of acquiring the land has already started, the officials said.