post news network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 20: Private sector steel major Tata Steel will invest Rs 2,500 crore in next 2-3 years to develop infrastructure at Special Economic Zone at Gopalpur, a top official of the company said. “We will be investing around Rs 2,500 crore in Gopalpur SEZ, which will flow in next 2-3 years mainly to develop infrastructure,” Managing Director of Tata Steel Special Economic Zone Ltd, Arun Misra said at a round table on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ here Sunday.
He also said the company has requested the state government to work as a JV partner for this project. The company, which is developing infra at the SEZ site with a Singapore-based company, also said that it is looking for investments from sectors like defence, aerospace, basic metals, light fabrication, electrical and electronic component manufacturing, logistics in primary and pharmaceuticals, textiles, chemicals in secondary industries in the SEZ.
“There will be no linkage between Kalinganagar steel unit and Gopalpur SEZ. The upcoming SEZ will be an independent unit in which downstream industries relating to steel sector are also likely to come up,” Misra said.
As per the official, the SEZ is eyeing to tap contract manufacturers which are migrated from China to set up units here. The SEZ is getting many enquiries from China in this regard, he added. Giving the timeline of completion of the SEZ, Misra said it would take 5-7 years to make the SEZ project fully operational. Notably, Tata Steel is the anchor tenant in the SEZ project and is developing 55,000 tonne per annum ferro chrome plant at an estimated cost of Rs 541 crore. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned by December this year.
