Tata Steel’s Ferro-chrome plant inaugurated in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Nov 30:

A 55,000 tonne per annum Ferro-chrome plant set up by Tata Steel in Ganjam district of Odisha was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday.

The Ferro-chrome at Gopalpur Industrial Park is a unique environment-friendly plant with state-of-the-art pollution control equipment and technology such as Effluent Treatment Plant and Sewage Treatment Plant, said a statement.

Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahi, Women and Child Development Minister Usha Devi, Tata Steel Managing Director T. V. Narendran, Gopalpur project managing director Arun Misra and other dignitaries were present at the event.

Narendran said the plant built at the cost of Rs 542 crore is the first green-field plant of Tata Steel in the country.

“It is a moment of pride for Tata Steel to start the Ferro-chrome plant in the area. In the coming days, the Gopalpur Industrial Park should see lot more investors coming forward, adding to the industrial progress of the region,” said Narendran.

The plant will set a high benchmark in technology and other performance parameters in the country excelling in operations and ensuring a total commitment to enhancing stakeholder value, he said.

“We are happy with the commissioning of the plant at Gopalpur. We expect new investment in Tata Steel Special Economic Zone (SEZ) over next few months,” Misra said.

The plant has 100 per cent water harvesting facility that caters to most of the water needs of the plant.

It has an indigenously built semi-closed hybrid furnace, which is first of its kind in India, and components procured from all over the world to maintain high standards of quality and safety.

Also, it is the first plant in India to use briquetting method of chrome ore fines agglomeration, it said.

Tata Steel is also developing an Industrial Park at Gopalpur. Spread over 2,970 acres of land, the park is a multi-product Special Economic Zone.

Besides the new unit at Gopalpur, Tata Steel has two other Ferro-chrome plants in Odisha — a 65,000 TPA plant at Bamnipal in Keonjhar district and the other at Athagarh in Cuttack district of 55,000 TPA capacity under the management of its subsidiary T.S. Alloys. (IANS)