After a gap of one-and-half decades, Tata Steel is set to build an industrial park on 3,200 acre acquired earlier by it to set up a mega steel mill, at Gopalpur in Orissa's Ganjam district.
"Tata Steel as tenant anchor of the proposed industrial park will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the project," Tata Steel Managing Director H M Nerukar told reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Stating that the park would start with a ferrochrome plant and a bar mill, Nerukar said the project was likely to provide employment to about 1,000 people.
Stating that though some investors had come up with proposals to set up units at the industrial park, but none had so far confirmed it, Nerukar said that Tata Steel's investment in the state would touch Rs 30,000 crore with the new project.
Though the company had earlier abandoned its steel plant project at Gopalpur due to water scarcity, this time Tata Steel was planning to undertake disiltation and water harvesting to meet water requirement of the industrial park, he said.
Replying a question on the SEZ project of the company in the same area, he said "We want the SEZ to continue."
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Nerukar, however, was not sure about the possible investment likely to be made in the proposed investment park. "Right now, I cannot say about the quantum of investment to be made in the park."
The chief minister is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the industrial park.
Earlier, former Prime Minister P V Narashima Rao had laid a foundation stone for a steel plant at the same location in the mid-90s. However, the project could not take off due to scarcity of water.
On the Kalinga Nagar project, Nerukar said that the company had been enjoying support of both the state government and the local people.
During meeting with the chief minister, Tata Group officials informed the state government that its port project at Dhamara in Bhadrak district, was likely to be commissioned during October-November, 2010.