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Mistry had come here to inspect the site of Tata Steel's proposed 500-bedded hospital at Sitalapalli, near the rehabilitation colony of the company's Gopalpur project.
About 600 displaced persons are currently staying in the Tata Steel rehabilitation colony. They argue that the compensation they received when their land was acquired about 18 years back for a project of the steel major was meagre.
Moreover, as the land is still not transferred to Tata Steel's name and they have been deprived of any job opportunity due to non-implementation of the project, they should be paid higher compensation and other benefits as per the latest Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy of the state government.
"We want payment of Rs 15 lakh to each displaced family, fresh enumeration of the displaced persons, jobs and re-construction of the buildings and land patta of the houses in the rehabilitation colony", said P. Dalaya Reddy, president, Tata Rehabilitation Village Development Committee. The committee submitted a memorandum to the company officials during the visit of Mistry.
It may be noted, the state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) had acquired around 3000 acres land near Gopalpur for establishment of a 10 million tonne steel plant by Tata Steel in mid-1990s.
The company later shelved the steel project and announced to set up an Industrial Park with Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status there. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the Industrial Park in August 2010. But there is no progress on this project either and the land is lying mostly vacant. The company, meanwhile, has constructed a boundary wall around the acquired land.
As an anchor investor of the proposed Industrial Park, Tata Steel proposed to set up a 55,000 tonne per annum (TPA) High Carbon Ferro-Chrome plant, 4, 00,000 TPA Rebar Mill at an investment of Rs 1000 crore. Sources said, these projects have recently received environment clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). To overcome the water problem at the site, the company also proposed to set up a desalination plant.
When confronted by scribes on the progress of Gopalpur Industrial Park and SEZ during his visit to the area today, Mistry did not respond to the queries.
On the proposed hospital at Sitalapalli, he, however, said, "We will continue to support Odisha for an integrated development".
The hospital will come up over around 44-acres of land. It will start with 200 beds in the first phase and will gradually be scaled up to 500 beds. Initially, it will have Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesia, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pediatrics, ENT, Pathology departments with ultra-modern ICU, Emergency Services including world class diagnostic facilities.
Tata Steel has joined hands with 'Medica Hospitals', a Kolkata based healthcare specialist, for this project. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the hospital on February 20, 2014.
Mistry also flagged off an advanced mobile medical unit for the area. Four more such units will be added to this service soon, said a company officials.
Among others state's Higher Education minister, Pradip Panigrahi, and managing director, Tata Steel, TV Narendran accompanied Mistry during the visit.
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