Tata Steel has been given the green signal by the South African government to start construction on its $103-million ferrochrome steel plant at Richards Bay in the country's KwaZulu-Natal region. |
South Africa's Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs said in a statement earlier this week that the permission had been granted after in depth investigations carried out on the environmental impact. |
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The steel plant is planned to set up in the Alton North light industrial area of Richards Bay, situated about 150 km north of Durban. |
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The Department had been called in, to conduct the investigation following objections by environmental groups that the steel plant would contribute to further polluting the Richards Bay region. |
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The Richards Bay Clean Association and other environmental groups had objected the Tata Steel project on the grounds that no environmental assessment impact had been carried out. |
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The environmental groups maintain that the permission granted to Tata Steel would only pave the way for other heavy steel industries to move to the light industrial area. |
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The announcement will be a much needed breather for the Indian steel major, as the project has been plagued by delays since its announcement about four years ago. Tata Steel had initially planned a joint venture with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa and expected the project to be completed by 2005. |
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But later decided to go solo. Interestingly, the project was originally planned for Australia, but was later shifted to South Africa following favourable power tariffs offered by the African authorities. |
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Tata Steel, along with Mittal Steel has invested heavily in South Africa. Mittal Steel had earlier taken control of the South Africa-state company, Iscor. Mittal Steel has also taken over plants in Newcastle in the KwaZulu-Natal area as well as the ones in the Johannesburg region. |
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