Tata Steel to start work on Orissa plant next month

MUMBAI: Tata Steel’s Rs 21,000-crore plant in Orissa, already delayed by four-years due to stiff resistance from locals for displacement and rehabilitation, is likely to start construction work next month, a senior company official said.

The steel major has plans to build a 6-million tonne (MT) plant at Kalinganagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur district of Orissa.

“We have received 80% of the required land from the state government and the balance will be received soon. We will start construction work next month,” Sanjay Chowdhary, chief of Tata Steel India’s corporate affairs and communications, said.

The company has already placed orders worth Rs 6,373 crore for equipment and civil structures for the project and the first consignment — a steel melting shop (SMS) — has reached Kalinganagar from Germany, he said.
More equipment will arrive in the next three to four days, while equipment worth over Rs 500 crore will reach the site by the end of this fiscal, he said.

According to him at least 11 consignments of equipment and machinery worth Rs 200 crore for the project have arrived in India.

Tata Steel had signed an MoU with the Orissa government in November 2004 for setting up the integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar.

“We have already shifted around 807 out of the 1,195 families and we are in talks with the locals to rehabilitate the remaining families,” he said.

The steel project ran into rough weather after 14 people were killed in police firing on January 2, 2006, while opposing the construction of the steel plant’s boundary wall.