At a time when several Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developers are seeking cancellation of their zones, Tata Steel's SEZ at Gopalpur in Odisha is in the process of attracting outside investors into its 3000-acre project.
With a recently-inaugurated ferro chrome plant serving as an anchor investment, Tata Steel is now looking at bringing in Chinese investors in the metal space. Besides, the SEZ is also targeting textile and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
"At Gopalpur, we are not depending on Tata Steel investments as it would be having its own downstream investments in Kalinganagar, where a 3-million capacity steel plant has come up. We are looking at outside investments. There are many Chinese downstream producers who would like to come to India to set up facilities near their customers," said Arun Mishra, managing director, Tata Steel Special Economic Zone.
Gopalpur Industrial Park, located next to the Gopalpur port and some 200 kilometre away from Adani's Dhamra port, is being developed by the Tata Steel Special Economic Zone, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Steel.
It is being developed on a contiguous land parcel of 3000 acre, of which 1200 acre is notified SEZ and the balance is domestic tariff area.
As an anchor investor, Tata Steel has put up a 55,000-tonne-a-year high carbon ferro-chrome plant while Mumbai-based Sure Safety Solutions in association with Megitt Corp of UK, has set up an aerial target manufacturing facility for the Indian defence sector.
"We are getting offers for similar ferro chrome projects there. There are also offers to build titanium dioxide plants similar to the project built by Saraf Agencies as the sand of Gopalpur beach is rich in the mineral," Mishra said.
Earlier this year, the Saraf group of Kolkata revived its titanium dioxide project with Chinese help post dispute with its Russian partners, DNA Money had reported.
Textile industry is also being targeted because of Odisha's competitive power costs, a key input for the sector.
"We would be going with the government of Odisha to do a roadshow in Bengaluru on opportunities in apparel as power costs in Karnataka are much higher. We got enquiries from pharmaceutical sector as well from those who are planning to create facilities in the eastern region as it is underserved in terms of manufacturing bases," Mishra said.
The SEZ project would get completed in 3-4 years and has a potential to create direct employment opportunities for around 15,000 people.
Mishra didn't give any indication of investment potential though the initial target was in the range of Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore when the project was planned in 2010.
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It is being developed on a contiguous land parcel of 3000 acre, of which 1200 acre is notified SEZ and the balance is domestic tariff area.
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