Stuck amid demand by locals for jobs in the company, Tata Steel which in early 2011 had decided to put up a 50,000 tonne per annum (tpa) ferroalloy plant and a 0.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) hot rolling mill (HRM) at Gopalpur in coastal Ganjam of south Orissa, has now decided to pursue only the ferroalloy plant, provided it receives cooperation of the locals.
Tata Steel had in the 1990s thought of putting up a steel plant at Gopalpur and had acquired more than 4,000 acres for the project but lack of infrastructure, including availability of water at the location, had later dissuaded it to go for it.
Instead, it had in early 2011 thought of investing Rs 1,000 crore in a 50,000 tpa ferroalloy plant and a 0.5 mtpa hot rolling mill (HRM).
?When we go somewhere, expectation always is jobs; now if it is a very big project, you can take care of everyone; if it is a small project then you can take care of some people; so that is what is happening; we have to manage expectations (of the locals for jobs), we are in discussion,? said managing director TV Narendran.
Narendran, who spoke exclusively to FE recently at the inauguration of the ?At-in-Industry Camp 2014? here, said the company was in the process of requesting the local community to allow it build the ferroalloy plant so that the company could internally make a case or justification to build ?something bigger? at a future date.
