2 min readBhubaneswarAug 20, 2010 02:39 AM IST
First published on: Aug 20, 2010 at 02:39 AM IST
The Tata Steel managing director,HM Nerurkar,said on Thursday that about 10 to 12 big investors have evinced interest in setting up anchor tenant industries in the proposed Gopalpur multi-product SEZ Special Economic Zone in Orissa. He,however,refused to divulge the name of the investors enquiring about the SEZ.
The proposed Gopalpur SEZ has been accorded in-principle approval by the Centre. The multi-product SEZ will have downstream industries of steel,engineering,and chemicals using the 3200 acres leaving 500 acres where the rehabilitation colony has come up.
Announcing the launching of the Gopalpur multi-product SEZ,Nerurkar said that the foundation stone for the SEZ would be laid by chief minister Naveen Patnak on Friday.
The managing director said that Tata Steel would set up a cold rolling mill and a ferro-chrome plant as the initial anchor tenant for the SEZ with an investment of Rs 1000 crore.
Nerurkar met the chief minister and discussed the project. He said that the two units would create about 1,000 jobs.
Nerurkar refused to guess the quantum of investment the SEZ would attract stating that it would be possible to estimate the likely investment that would come to the project only after the master plan is ready.
Singapore-based Jurong has been entrusted to prepare the master plan of the SEZ. Tata Steel would rope in Tata Realty amp; Infrastructure Ltd. TRIL to build infrastructure for the project.
The managing director also refused to quantify the amount of investment the Tata Steel is going to make in the SEZ for creation of the required infrastructure. He said it would known only after the other major anchor tenants firmed up their commitments.
It was in the second half of 1990s,Tata Steel acquired 3700 acres of land in Gopalpur to set up a 10 million tonne shore-based steel plant.
However, it shelved the project due to the down turn of the steel market and the land was laying vacant. In early 2000s,it decided to have a multi-product SEZ at the site instead of the steel plant.
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