Tata Steel will play the lead role in Tata Metaliks proposed steel project in Karnataka.
Tata Metaliks, the applicant for the project, will be a minority player in the Rs 15,000 crore integrated steel plant. “Tata Steel and Tata Metaliks should not be viewed separately. The proposal has not been placed at the board as yet,” Tata Metaliks chairman and Tata Steel group chief financial officer, Koushik Chatterjee, said on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting. Tata Steel holds a little more than 50 per cent in Tata Metaliks.
The three million tonne plant in Karnataka would require around 2,500 acres. “Government will acquire land and hand it over to us,” Tata Metaliks managing director, Harsh K Jha, said.
The Karnataka government, however, is yet to recommend mines for the project.
“Tata Metaliks was one of the first investors to evince interest in Karnataka,” Chatterjee pointed out.
At the Global Investors Meet, Advantage Karnataka, held in June this year, Tata Metaliks entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka government for setting up the steel plant in the Haveri district.
Tata Metaliks was pursuing both Karnataka and West Bengal at the same time, which was in 2005, but at that time the scale of the Karnataka project was much smaller. Subsequently, Tata Metaliks scaled the land requirement for Karnataka project from 500 acres to 900 acres, after the Bengal project failed to take off.
“West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) was supposed to acquire 350 acres. They acquired 200. Unless they acquire 350, how can one take a call on reviving the project,” Jha said responding to queries from mediapersons.
For pig iron producer, Tata Metaliks, this was meant to be a diversification project.
