Tata Steel, the anchor tenant for the multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Gopalpur, hopes to break new ground on the project, expecting extension in approval of SEZ from the Centre and also banking on Odisha's latest SEZ policy that would allow sub-leasing of land by the steel major.
"Tata Steel hopes to get extension of approval soon for its Gopalpur SEZ from the Board of Approvals (BoA) for SEZ under Union commerce and industry ministry. The steel maker also sees no hurdle to change in name of the SEZ from Gopalpur SEZ to Tata Steel SEZ", Arun Misra, vice president (Gopalpur project) of Tata Steel and managing director, Tata Steel SEZ told Business Standard.
Tata Steel has sought extension of formal approval for the SEZ that expired on December 17, 2014. Justifying its demand for extension, Tata Steel said that though the Odisha government has approved registration of 500 hectares (or 1235 acres) in the name of Tata Steel SEZ, inclusion of sub-leasing clause is pending for approval.
Accordingly, the development commissioner, Falta SEZ recommended extension of formal approval for the SEZ till December 17, 2015 on the condition that this should be the last and final extension.
The BoA met on August 27 to consider the case for extension. But the decision is yet to be known.
The developer was granted formal approval for this SEZ on June 18, 2007. Since then, it has been granted five extensions. The SEZ, however, is yet to be notified.
The delay in land registration and the row over the name of the SEZ had presumably held up the notification of the SEZ. The change in name from Gopalpur SEZ Ltd to Tata Steel SEZ Ltd has been approved by the Union ministry of corporate affairs.
But, Misra feels there is no hurdle now to the notification of the SEZ especially after the unveiling of the state specific SEZ policy.
"Since the state did not have its SEZ policy, there was a problem in sub-leasing of land. Now that the SEZ policy is out and the notification expected to come out in 10-15 days, we don't see any issue there", Misra said.
Within six months of notification of the SEZ, Tata Steel expects to submit a detail master plan for the SEZ along with infrastructure development plan.
As an anchor tenant, Tata Steel is developing 55,000 tonne per annum ferro chrome plant at an estimated cost of Rs 541 crore. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned by December this year.
source: Business Standard
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