Tata Steel MD unhappy over Tuticorin project's pace

Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman today said he was disappointed over the lack of progress in the company’s titanium dioxide project in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. The Rs 2,500-crore project, which proposes to mine for titanium dioxide in the port town of Tuticorin, has been waiting for land acquisition to be completed.

The project requires 10,000 acres for mining. Tata Steel officials in the past have said that such large tracts of land can be acquired only with the support of the state.

Though state officials had suggested that they would do the needful, no progress has been made yet. Muthuraman said the company was not looking for alternative locations as yet. Titanium dioxide is also available in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Muthuraman was in Chennai to attend a public function.

The Tamil Nadu government had agreed to help Tata Steel procure nearly 10,000 acres for its titanium dioxide project in Tuticorin, 540 km south-west of the state capital, Chennai.