Tata Steel Gopalpur SEZ validity extended

The Board of Approval (BoA) under the Union Commerce Ministry has extended the validity of the approval given for setting up of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by Tata Steel at Gopalpur in South Odisha up to 17th December, 2015.

The term of the earlier approval had expired in December last year, following which the company had made a request for its extension by a year.

"We expect the notification for SEZ to be issued within next two weeks. After that the work will be expedited," said Arun Misra, vice president (Gopalpur project) of Tata Steel and managing director, Tata Steel SEZ.

The company is also poised to sign an agreement with Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) soon for transfer of title of the SEZ land in its name.

The delay in land registration and the row over the name of the SEZ had presumably held up the notification of the SEZ. The change in name from Gopalpur SEZ Ltd to Tata Steel SEZ Ltd has been approved by the Union ministry of corporate affairs.

Tata Steel had acquired 3,000 acres of land near Gopalpur for establishment of a 10 million tonne steel plant in mid-1990s. The company had later decided to set up an industrial park and SEZ after shelving the steel project.

While the SEZ will come up on 1235 acres, the rest land will be used for setting up of the industrial park as per the provisions of the state's Industrial policy resolution.

"After the issue of SEZ notification, we will start signing MoUs with different companies interested to set up industries in the SEZ", Misra said.

The company is already in advanced stage of negotiation with these firms belonging to Europe, China and South East Asian countries.

The SEZ is looking for investments in defence, aerospace, basic metals, light fabrication, electrical and electronic component manufacturing, logistics in primary and pharmaceuticals, textiles, chemicals in secondary industries.

With anchor investment by Tata Steel in the 55,000 TPA high carbon ferrochrome plant and availability of required infrastructure like water, electricity, road, rail, port and other social infrastructure and new SEZ policy of the state government in place, the Gopalpur SEZ will an ideal destination for investment, he added.

Tata Steel SEZ (TSSEZ), which is a 100% subsidiary of Tata Steel, participated in the 19th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) held at Xiamen, from 8th to 11th September. "We have received queries from 8 to 10 companies keen to set up units in the SEZ during the trade fair", Misra said, but refused to disclose their names pending issue of SEZ notification.