Saraf Agencies clears legal hurdle for titanium project

The Odisha law department has given its go-ahead to Saraf Agencies Pvt Ltd (SAPL) to develop the much delayed titanium project proposed at Chhatrapur near Gopalpur in south Odisha.

Saraf Agencies had volunteered to build the Rs 1,200-crore titanium dioxide plant on its own after falling out with its erstwhile joint venture partners that included two Russian state owned firms.

“The law department has given its nod to Saraf Agencies to develop the titanium project on its own. The department has clarified that there are no legal hurdles for the company since the land has been allotted in its name,” said an industries department source.

Apart from putting up the titanium dioxide plant, the company had also unveiled Rs 5000-crore investment plan that included setting up of a titanium park.

Saraf Agencies was in possession of 260 acres of land at the project site. It had sought additional 250 acres of land for the industrial park.

Recently, Saraf Agencies had decided to pay additional compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre to land losers owing to delay in commencement of construction work. The company believed payment of extra compensation would help expedite construction work.

The titanium dioxide project has been hanging fire for past several years due to bickering between SAPL and its joint venture partners — two government owned firms from Russia. The differences had cropped up mainly on the transfer of the acquired land for the project in the name of the joint venture company.  With the JV agreement falling through over this dispute, SAPL had decided to implement the project on its own.

In the first phase, the project would produce 10,000 tonnes of high titanium slag and 6,000 tonnes of high purity pig iron per annum. Around Rs 100-crore will be invested in the first phase which is scheduled to go on stream in May 2014.