Validity of Tata Steel SEZ at Gopalpur extended till December

The Board of Approvals for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under Union commerce ministry has extended the validity of formal approval granted to Tata Steel SEZ at Gopalpur till December 17, this year.

The steel behemoth had requested for extension of the validity period of its formal approval for setting up a multi-product SEZ at the beach town beyond December 2016.

“The Board, after deliberations, extended the validity of the formal approval up to December 17, 2017,” stated the minutes of the 74th meeting of BoA.

It may be noted that Tata Steel has submitted a proposal to the Odisha government to establish a domestic tariff area (DTA) adjacent to the SEZ at Gopalpur. 
 

The steel company is developing an industrial park there where it is the anchor tenant. It has SEZ notified facility in the park spread over 500 hectares (or 1,250 acres) land. The entire park is being developed on 2,900 acres of land.

The company needs 1,565 acres of land to develop the DTA. It will help the company in expanding the scope for pulling investments. This area is meant for attracting domestic investors across sectors as opposed to SEZ, which is more export oriented. The DTA will enable the domestic investors to put up their facilities and enjoy incentives provided by the state government for industrial parks.

The company wants the land proposed for the DTA to be registered in the name of TTSL, a Tata Steel subsidiary, as has been done by the state government for the SEZ. DTA means an area within the country outside of a SEZ. It can include any area which is not under the jurisdiction of a custom bonded area.

As the anchor tenant for the industrial park, Tata Steel has put up a ferrochrome plant with an annual capacity of 55,000 tonne per annum. The plant — built up at a cost of Rs 542 crore — was inaugurated on November 30 this year by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Other than Tata Steel, the park has drawn one investment. Mumbai-based Sure Safety Solutions Ltd in collaboration with UK's Meggitt Defence has started operations of the aerial target manufacturing facility at the Gopalpur park.

Tata Steel has been intensifying efforts to lure investors for the industrial park which has the potential to attract investments in the range of Rs 20,000 crore. The steel company has staged roadshows in both overseas and domestic locations to pull investors. It is also believed to be in talks with some foreign companies for investments in heavy industries at the Gopalpur SEZ.