Bright spot

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: Once bitten, but not shy.

Tata Steel, which had backed out of a project in Orissa in the mid-nineties, wants to set up a six-million-tonne integrated steel plant at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore in the state.

The company had proposed to set up a 10-million-tonne shore-based plant at Gopalpur in Orissa’s Ganjam district in the mid-nineties. It spent around Rs 160 crore to acquire 4,000 hectares of land for the plant. However, delayed development of the Gopalpur port, poor iron ore supply and fierce protest by local people sent the company packing.

Now a decade later, the company has asked for 2,500 acres at Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex near Dubri in Jajpur district to set up the plant.

Dubri is an ideal site in terms of raw materials and port facility. The company will have to invest in mine development, raw material processing, 140-MW of captive power generation, production of steel through the blast furnace route and steel rolling mill for final output.

Tata Steel has asked for the Mankadnacha-Bali Parbat iron ore mines on the border of Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts for the project.

The mines were allotted to Tisco for the proposed project at Gopalpur. The company submitted a proposal to Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa (Ipicol) on Friday. The company needs around 500 million tonnes of iron ore over a period of 50 years.

A second steel plant in Orissa has been everybody’s dream. Many MoUs have been signed, but till today, Rourkela Steel Plant remains the only plant in Orissa.

Orissa, with its largest reserve of iron ore in the country, has been the cynosure of attention of foreign steel makers who seem to be queuing up to set up plants here.

To exploit this interest, Orissa has decided to offer mining leases to companies that set up a steel plant in the state.

Early this week, a joint delegation from South Korean steel major Posco and Australian mining company BHP Billiton met chief minister Naveen Patnaik to discuss a three-million-tonne steel plant at a cost of Rs 39,000 crore at Duburi.