Land acquisition delay will boost cost of Tata Metalik's mini steel plant in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Tata Metaliks (TML), a leading producer of foundry grade pig iron, is miffed by the inordinate delay in acquiring land for its proposed mini steel plant in West Bengal. The company has said the delay will definitely lead to an escalation in project cost.

The Tata Steel subsidiary had applied for 350 acres near its existing Kharagpur plant for expansion in February 2005. Against this, the government had assured the company of handing over the land by June 2007. ���Three years have already passed. We are yet to get the land although we had paid 70% of land value in advance. Now we have been assured of getting the land by July,��� TML managing director Harsh K Jha said.

As per TML���s original plan, the cost of expansion was pegged between Rs 700 crore and 900 crore. ���We are yet to rework the project cost but the delay is likely to increase it by 20-30%,��� Mr Jha added. ���Owing to monsoon, work on the project is only likely to begin around October this year, even if the land is given to us by July,��� he said.

The state government has repeatedly assured TML of making land available. In December 2007, state commerce & industries minister Nirupam Sen had said, ���We have started the process of directly buying land from landowners for the Tata Metaliks project. After we complete the purchase, we will transfer it to the company���.