 "Tata Steel hopes to overcome hurdles for Gopalpur SEZ")
“The steel maker also sees no hurdle to change in name of the SEZ to Tata Steel SEZ”, Arun Misra, vice president (Gopalpur project) of Tata Steel and managing director, Tata Steel SEZ told Business Standard.
Tata Steel has sought extension of formal approval which expired on December 17, 2014. Justifying its demand for extension, Tata Steel said that though the Odisha government has approved registration of 500 hectares (or 1235 acres) in the name of Tata Steel SEZ, sub-leasing clause is pending for approval.
Also Read
The Board of Approvals (BoA) met on August 27 to consider the case for extension. But the decision is yet to be known.
"Since the state did not have its SEZ policy, there was a problem in sub-leasing of land. Now that the SEZ policy is out and the notification expected to come out in 10-15 days, we don't see any issue there”, Misra said.
The developer was granted formal approval for this SEZ on June 18, 2007. Since then, it has been granted five extensions. The SEZ, however, is yet to be notified.
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.
But, Misra feels there is no hurdle now to the notification of the SEZ especially after the unveiling of the state specific SEZ policy.
"Since the state did not have its SEZ policy, there was a problem in sub-leasing of land. Now that the SEZ policy is out and the notification expected to come out in 10-15 days, we don't see any issue there”, Misra said.
Within six months of notification of the SEZ, Tata Steel expects to submit a detail master plan for the SEZ along with infrastructure development plan.
As an anchor tenant, Tata Steel 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.