Tatas will be half forgiven by Odisha if they really set up an auto-unit in the Gopalpur SEZ as reported below.
Auto, Berhampur- Gopalpur- Chhatrapur, SEZs, Tatas July 19th. 2011, 3:57pmIn 2006 I wrote a letter to the Tata’ on their 100+ years of exploitation of Odisha in terms of taking minerals at throw away prices from Odisha and doing major CSR and development outside Odisha and contributing very little to Odisha per say, but a lot to India though. Following is are excerpts from a news item in Financial Express. If what is mentioned there really happens Odisha will half forgive the Tatas.
Tata Motors is likely to set up an automobile unit at the Gopalpur SEZ Industrial Park, which has been developed by Tata Steel.
“Talks are going on with Tata Motors to set up an automobile unit at the Gopalpur SEZ in Orissa,” said a senior executive of Tata Steel.
He said Tata Steel … plans to manufacture finished products for the automobile industry.
“Obviously we would like to have Tata Motors set up its unit at the Gopalpur SEZ Industrial Park,” the chief resident executive of Tata Steel in Orissa, Rajesh Chintak, told FE. He said that the proposed industrial park will have a separate zone for the automobile and the auto-component industry, adding that the park is now generating a lot of interest among investors.
Chintak also said that the company is now concentrating on developing the park. Once the infrastructure is ready a clear picture of the possible investments will emerge, he added.
The Orissa government, in fact, is lobbying with the Tatas to set up an automobile unit in the Gopalpur SEZ. Even when Tata Motors withdrew the Nano project from Singur, the Orissa government tried to convince the automobile company to relocate the unit in Gopalpur.
Tata Steel, which is developing the SEZ Industrial Park over an area of 3,700 acres is proposing to set up a ferro-alloys plant with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes and a 4-lakh tonne cold roll re-bar mill with an investment of R10,000 crore to R15,000 crore as anchor tenant.
The managing director of Tata Steel HM Nerurkar … said the Gopalpur Park has received SEZ status. He said that the construction work for the project would be started once the statutory clearances like the environmental clearance are obtained.
The managing director said the first phase of the Kalinga Nagar steel plant will be operational by January or February 2014.
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July 20th, 2011 at 2:34 am
Tata Group has shown enough dreams to the people of Ganjam and they don’t take all this seriously anymore, until something indeed happens there. Only regret is when there is so much of hue and cry over land acquisition in Orissa and FDI worth billions and World Class Universities are not materialising, here is a case where 4000 acres of land is lying barren. Every time the TATA’s have to get a mining lease or some sort of licence they come up with all these grandiose ideas to hoodwink the people and the Govt.
July 22nd, 2011 at 12:10 am
I doubt we can blame the non-usage of the land on Tata Steel. Whenever some project or the other was to come up in the area, there were always political protests and no govt of Orissa yet has had the guts to put its foot down and stand by its convictions. And I dont think we can expect a private company to wait around to use the land. Obviously they would like to grow continously and invest their capital elsewhere.