 "Tata Steel Kalinganagar plant commissioning to be delayed")
With about 20 per cent project work still pending and work on some of the key components like blast furnace, sinter, steel melting shop and hot strip mill yet to be completed, the commissioning of the project will be delayed by about a year, sources said.
Tata Steel managing director, TV Narendran had set the March, 2015 deadline in September, last year. This was after shifting the poll several times by his predecessors. In July, 2011, then Tata Steel MD, HN Nerurkar had said, the project will go on stream in February, 2014. He later revised the deadline to August, 2014.
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Tata Steel had signed MoU with the Odisha government for setting up 6 million tonne steel plant at Kalinganagar in November, 2004 at an estimated cost of Rs 15,400 crore. But due to agitation by the land losers, which even led to a police firing in January, 2006, claiming lives of 14 agitators, the work could not be taken up on the project till about 2010. Due to delay in implementation of the project, the project cost for the first phase comprising 3 million tonne steel capacity, has mounted to Rs 25,164 crore. Out of this, about Rs 20,000 crore has been grounded till now, said the company spokesperson.
The delays in meeting the targeted dates for commissioning is typical with all greenfield projects in the country, said a company official. First, there were issues with local people who agitated frequently demanding jobs and other benefits that affected the construction work. Then there was cyclones like Phailin which induced the workers to leave for home slowing down the work at the site.
Though the construction work is going on without any hitch for last one year, the company has to negotiate through the lengthy process of getting the statutory clearance, integrate various components of the project, sync infrastructural facilities with the project requirement and complete the last mile of the unfinished work at different units of the plant before it can be ready for operation as an integrated entity. Hence, the project will be fully operational in another 7/8 months, he claimed.
But sources said, going by the present status of the thing, the plant will be unable to roll out finished steel before the end of FY16. They reasoned, out of different components of the project, only coke oven and captive power plant are ready. But, these units have also not received ‘consent to operate’ certificate from the Odisha state pollution control board (OSPCB). The pending work on effluent treatment facility and deviation in the coke cooling process from the original plan have held up the issue of certificate to the coke plant.
“The company has applied for ‘consent to operate’ permission about 4 months back for the entire integrated project. But all the units of the project have not been built yet and also completed units have not put in place required pollution control measures. As and when they build the units, we will vet the pollution control measures and compliances before issuing the go ahead certificate,” said A K Swar, senior environment officer, OSPCB.
After getting the clearances, the coke plant will take three months to heat up. Once it is ready to produce coke and sinter plant is operational, the process will start for commission of blast furnace, which will take three more months. Add to this, the time to be taken for completion of work on steel melting shop and hot strip mill, major work for which are pending, and to synchronise and stabilise different units of the plant for integrated operation. “It will not be before March, 2016, the plant can roll out finished steel,” said an industry source.