Tata Steel SEZ to focus on developing infrastructure, to invest Rs. 2,000 crore

Steelmaker Tata Steel India is scheduled to start commercial production at the Kalinganagar plant in Odisha at the beginning of next financial year, while the second phase ramp up with happen once demand gets better.

Managing Director TV Narendran said that the company has spent more than Rs. 25000 crore in the last 10 years to build a six million tonne steelmaking plant in Odisha. The commissioning of first phase of three mt has faced several delays until date.

Indian steel industry is under tremendous pressure as China, Russia, Japan and South Korea continue to flood the market with cheap steel. Indian government has taken steps to reduce the flow of these imports

"The engineering work of second phase we started sometime back and whenever we are ready depending on market we will. We didn't go through all the efforts over 10 years to build just a 3 mt steel plant. I hope the hard part of the work is behind us and then it is up to our affordability to decide how fast we can grow," said Narendran.

Narendran hopes that Indian government will continue to spend on infrastructure to help boost demand for domestic steelmakers in India.