Kalinganagar/Bhubaneswar, Nov. 18: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today commissioned the first-phase production of the Tata Steel's Kalinganagar plant, the largest single-location greenfield project in the country.

Spread over 2,200 acres and set up at an investment of Rs 25,000 crore, the unitary greenfield project has a production capacity of six million tonnes per annum (MTPA). In the first phase, the capacity will be 3MTPA, and it will go up to 6MTPA. The first-phase produces flat, lighter, high-tensile strength steel and will augment its domestic production to around 13MTPA.

Dedicating the plant, Naveen said: "I am told that the Tata Steel is planning to expand the plant capacity to 16 million tonnes per annum by 2025 with a cumulative investment of about Rs 1 lakh crore. It also proposes to invest Rs 2,300 crore for scaling up of the capacity of its captive Khandabandh iron one mine. I look forward to further investment in these projects as well as the ancillary and downstream ones."

Recalling Biju Patnaik's efforts to develop Kalinganagar as an industrial hub, he said the former chief minister was the father of industrial development in the state. The integrated steel plant "is a realisation of Biju babu's dream".

Naveen said that in the first phase of the project, more than Rs 25,000 crore had been invested and it would provide direct employment to 3,000 people and indirect employment to 22,000 people.

He urged Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry, who was present at the function, to make all-out efforts to promote ancillary and downstream industries to enable further value addition in the state. With iron ore reserves of more than 5,700 million tonnes accounting for about one-third of the country's resources, Odisha is the ideal location for setting up steel industries, he said.

Mistry said: "I am confident that the plant will achieve global benchmarks in steel production, and at the same time, will remain committed to growth and development of Odisha."

Tata Steel India managing director T.V. Narendran said: "The Kalinganagar project is symbolic of the commitment made by us to our stakeholders, business partners and to the society at large." The proposal to set up the plant at Kalinganagar, a fast-emerging industrial hub in the state, dates back to 2004 when the company had formalised an MoU with the state government.

The project had ran into trouble following anti-displacement agitation by local people. The project hit headlines following the killing of 14 tribal protesters in police firing on January 2, 2006. The mob had also lynched one police officer to death.

Earlier, during his meeting with Mistry at the state secretariat, Naveen had proposed for development of an IT and electronics manufacturing cluster at Naraj. The chief minister said 800 acres had been set aside for industrial development at the place. The Tata Power could consider setting up a defence electronics manufacturing cluster there as they have done in Bangalore, Naveen said.

The chief minister also proposed a PV cell manufacturing unit at Infovalley by the Tata BP solar, a hotel in Bhubaneswar by the Taj Group and expansion of the Tata Consultancy Services. Stating that the progress of industrial park and SEZ at Gopalpur "is not up to the mark", Naveen proposed the Tata chairman to consider defence manufacturing there.

In another development, the police today took Bisthapan Birodhi Jana Manch secretary Rabindra Jarika, former local MLA Sarat Rout and hundreds of members from the displaced families into preventive custody while they were proceeding from the mass cremation ground of the firing victims at Ambagadia to the meeting venue to stage demonstration.