Following is excerpted from a report in Business Standard.

With Orissa witnessing a rush of investment proposals in the iron and steel sector, the domestic and overseas steel majors are exploring the possibilities of developing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the large units proposed by them.

Tata Steel is developing a six-million tonne greenfield steel project at Kalinga Nagar, the emerging steel hub of the country. The firm has identified business opportunities worth Rs 12,000 crore in the ancillary and downstream units.

“The opportunities for ancillary and downstream units exist in the areas of operations and maintenance, core specialised services, support specialised services, processing and township management, to name a few. There can be different working models for development of local SMEs as ancillaries and downstream units. One such model includes Tata Steel and other steel majors working together with their ancillary partners in Orissa,” said K Shankar Marar, assistant general manager, (steel technology, at Tata Steel’s Kalinga Nagar project.

…  Another steel major, JSL, (formerly Jindal Stainless Limited), is keen on developing an industrial park based on downstream stainless steel industries, spread over an area of 300 acres as a part of its SEZ (special economic zone) in Orissa’s Jajpur district.

The SEZ is being developed at an investment of around Rs 700 crore. JSL has engaged US-based consultant CB Richard Ellis for developing a business plan for the project wherein opportunities for downstream industries will be explored.

The SEZ is set to provide direct employment to 3,800 workers besides generating indirect employment for 1,200 others.

Posco which has announced an investment of about Rs 52,000 crore for a 12 million tonne steel plant near Paradeep is also committed to development of ancillary and downstream units and the steel giant has engaged IIT-Kharagpur for a study on the opportunities that exist in this area.

According to a study conducted by IIT-Kharagpur for Posco India, opportunities for SME entrepreneurs exist in the areas of structural steel, ready mixed concrete, refractory, steel and concrete piles, pipes, propeller shafts and furnace building to name a few.

According to the study, opportunities also exist in other operational areas like steel probes, mould flux, thermos materials, manufacture and fabrication of structures, conveyor belts and electrical equipment repairs.

The study adds that business opportunities worth Rs 320 crore exist in the area of refractory, Rs 44 crore for cement, Rs 2.5 crore in hydraulic hoses and Rs 4 crore in wire rods. The first phase of Posco India’s project would generate 35,728 labour intensive jobs and another 30,420 technology intensive jobs.

… Aarti Steel has already started its efforts for developing SMEs as ancillaries for its steel plant in the state.

“We have sourced items and spare parts worth Rs 37 crore from 47 local partners till March 2008. Aarti Steel plans to develop two forging units adjacent to its steel plant for the benefit of the local entrepreneurs and we have approached IDCO to provide land for these units”, said a senior official of Aarti Steel.

On its part, the Orissa government plans to incorporate a clause at the MoU (memorandum of understanding) level with the private steel players to ensure that the mother industries will make necessary efforts for development of ancillary and downstream units.

The efforts made by the steel units to develop the ancillary units will be monitored by officials like district collectors and revenue district commissioners.

Steelguru.com gives some specifics of the SME/MSE impact with respect to Tata Steel’s Kalinganagar plant.

BS reported that the 6million tonne per annum greenfield steel project proposed by TATA Steel in Kalinganagar will require maintenance support services worth INR 1,200 crore when fully commissioned. These services will be outsourced by the company and are expected to create huge opportunities for the small and medium enterprises in Orissa.

The services to be outsourced include warehousing, machine shop, electrical repairing shop, fabrication shops, electrodes and lubricant suppliers, waste management, mechanized material handling and hospitality among others. Since the maintenance cost is about 4% of the total investment in steel industry, this is expected to create huge opportunities for the small and medium enterprises.

Mr B K Singh VP Orissa project of TATA Steel said that "We will invest about INR 30,000 crore in the Kalinganagar project in phases and will require maintenance support services worth INR 1,200 crore.”

He added that the group will work towards developing the local entrepreneurs and will provide assistance to anyone who wants to be a partner in TATA Steel’s business. He added that TATA Steel will give the first right of refusal to local industries in the maintenance support services.

Following is from a report in steelguru.

TATA Power Company & Indian Oil Corporation have decided to float a new company for jointly developing a 1,000 MW coal based power project at Paradip in Orissa. The shareholding pattern of the JV would be 74-26 for TPC and IOC, respectively.

As per report, the proposed project is essentially being set up as a captive project to meet the power requirements of IOC’s 15 million tonnes per annum integrated refinery cum petrochemicals complex at Paradip. The plant may also supply power to the proposed steel plant of the TATA group in Orissa as also other industries in and around the Paradip complex.

Under the JV agreement, Indian Oil is committed to source at least 51% power and the surplus generation can be traded by the JV company. The authorized share capital of JVC will be INR.1,200 crore and the capital will be increased to meet the requirement of further investment as and when called for.

Based on a feasibility study carried out by TPC & IOC the tariff for power supply to the Paradip complex has been estimated on annual levelised basis for 25 years operation at INR 2.46 per unit. The levelised power tariff on similar basis for captive generation within Paradip complex has also been assessed jointly with Foster Wheeler which indicates a significantly higher value of over INR 5 per unit.

Following is from Sambada.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The rural BPO centre will be established by the Tata Business Support Services (TBSS) — the BPO wing and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons — in partnership with Tata Steel Rural Development Society — a corporate NGO managed by the Tata Group for the last 60 years. To start with, it is expected to employ around 200 people.

Sources close to the development said the company has already recruited the first batch of the executives for the BPO unit, who are expected to undergo two months of training at TBSS’ headquarters in Hyderabad. TBSS has developed a specialised training programme in view the fact that most of the new recruits are not computer literate. It currently operates three rural BPO units that employ around 500 people in all.

A spokesperson from Hyderabad-headquartered TBSS confirmed the move. A senior official of the Tata group said the company was looking for graduates and under-graduates with some knowledge of English.

The centre aims at handling the Orissa region front-end and customer support works of group companies including Tata Teleservices and Tata Sky. The BPO unit will also provide services to other firms who have substantial operations in Orissa.

“Opening the BPO unit in Kalinganagar will provide us access to many educated but unemployed youths in semi-urban areas like Jajpur Road and Duburi which have a number of colleges and educational institutions in and around. The education level among the masses in these areas is comparatively high and the aspirations level of the local people is also very high,”said a Tata group executive in charge of human resources development.

“Although most youths in these areas are interested in higher-end and computer-related jobs, there were no opportunity in these places,” the executive added.

The group will initially run the BPO unit in the transit houses and rehabilitation set-up established by the company in Kalinganagar, before moving into a dedicated building in next few months. The centre will start as a voice-based BPO with focus on Bengali, Hindi and English languages other than Oriya.

Following is an excerpt from a report in sify.com. (This report is reasonable; the tall claims about making Naraj like Jamshedpur is reported in Sambada, which is given at the end of the excerpt.)

Optimistic about completion of land acquisition for its 1,000 MW power plant near Cuttack in five months, Tata Power has allayed fears that it may cause air, water and noise pollution and said the thermal unit would adopt latest environmental safety technology.

"We expect the whole process of land acquisition for the Naraj Marthapur coal-based power project to be completed by October, this year," Project Director (eastern region) of Tata Power, Praveer Sinha said.

Maintaining that the company was for fair and just compensation for land, structures and trees, Sinha, who visited the proposed plant site with other company officials, said price for land would be settled through ‘direct win-win negotiations with sellers’.

Rates offered would be higher than benchmark rates fixed by Orissa government, Sinha and other company officials pointed out, adding most advanced technologies would be used in the Rs 5,000-crore project to minimise plant emission.

… Ruling out any adverse impact on the air quality of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar due to the plant, he said water spraying would be undertaken in coal yard area to suppress the dust, while high efficiency electrostatic precipitator would be installed for removal of fly as from the flue gas.

"All these measures would keep emission of ash and coal dust to well below the statutory norms," a senior official at Tata Power’s Jamshedpur plant said, adding flue gas would be released through 275 metre tall stack, three times taller than Qutub Minar.

Explaining the steps to check water pollution, Sinha said fly ash generated from the plant would be stored within the plant premises and it would not be dumped into Mahanadi river or Puri canal.

Fly ash, said another senior executive, would be directly utilised by the cement industry, brick manufacturing, road and pavement construction, fertilisers and for bund preparation in farms. "Therefore, the quality of water in Puri canal or Mahanadi river or Puri canal will not be affected and will not impact marine life at all," he said.

Similarly, he said waste water generated from the plant would be reused within the plant and discharge, if any, was likely to take place only during rainy season when excess water is available.

"Such water will be discharged only after treatment of effluents and its quality will comply with the applicable effluents standards," he said.

Sinha said steps would be taken to ensure that no pollutant material is discharged into the river. Ash would not pollute ground water due to impervious lining of the ash pond into which the ash would be disposed.

Ruling out noise pollution due to the power unit, company officials also made it clear that the machinery and equipment would meet all the national standards of noise limits.

Further, thick green belt would be developed around the project site to minimise the impacts of noise created by transport of coal by railways. Around two lakh trees would be planted in the green belt to absorb dust and noise.

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.

Take the case of Bhusan Power & Steel (BPSL), an integrated power and steel plant set up at Thelkoloi in Sambalpur district.

The Orissa Pollution Control Board (OPCB) on 16 February issued a closure notice to BPSL for violating the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act.

BPSL was asked to stop all production until further orders, failing which stringent penal proceedings would be initiated against the company.

According to sources though the company is producing power for more than 2 years is has no designated site to dump fly ash released from the plants.

In absence of a proper place the company authorities were dumping in nearby places like Laripalli, for which villagers raised hue and cry.

Now they are dumping in Khinda, said a source.

Secondly BPSL filled up the river bed of the Bheden River by dumping earth.

These, according to environmental norms are serious offences.

OPCB had been asking BPSL to conform to environmental norms for the past six months, said the source.

However, the company allegedly did not pay any heed to it, added an official.

OPCB waited for six months and finally decided on closing down the unit.

… On 1 March OPCB has lifted the closure notice.

… Months ago when Dr. Hrushikesh Panda was at the helm of Forest & Environment Department, Tata Refractories Limited (TRL) at Belpahar,  was accused of pollution.

He impressed upon the OPCB to issue closure notice to the company.

OPCB issued closure notice and the Chief Minister announced the closure of TRL in the floor of the House.

So unrelenting was he that the State Government was to shift Dr.Panda to provide relief to TRL.

With so many pollution prone large mineral based industries coming up in Orissa, the soft approach of the Government’s Green Authority bodes ill for the state, feel an environmentalist.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard on this.

The Tatas were provided 3,088 acres at Gopalpur in Ganjam district to set up a mega steel plant in the mid 1990s.

However, the company later shelved the project. The stretch included 2,295.95 acres of private land and 792.65 acres of government land.

The minister, however, pointed out that the company has deposited the revenue for the allotted land for 25 years at the rate fixed for the concerned villages.

Replying to questions in the state assembly, the minister said, "Out of the leased land, the company has set up a technical training centre over 10.2 acres. The surplus land, which was acquired for setting up of the steel plant, is lying vacant since 1997.

Similarly, the Tatas were provided 252.17 acres in Keonjhar district by the former king of Keonjhar.

It was given for the purpose of setting up a workshop (3 acres), rent-free houses (90 acres), roads (10 acres), tram ways (11.25 acres), temple or church (3 acres) and a malaria prevention programme (134.92 acres).

This lease was renewed till 31st March 1997 and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (northern range) sent the proposal for the second renewal to the revenue department on 19th September 2007.

Out of the land leased Keonjhar, the company is using 48.772 acres for buildings, 85.415 acres for a ferro-manganese complex, 10.874 acres for roads, 1.074 acres for a tramline, 11.539 acres for a temple, church, mosque and hospital.

There is 69.689 acres of vacant land. Samal stated that the use of 85.415 acres by the company for the ferro-manganese industry violates the objectives of the original lease.

Dharitri has a nice article on the golden future of Dhamara. Following are some of the major projects involving Dhamara. My prediction is that in 10-15 years the Chandbali-Dhamara-Bhitarakanika area will be a beautiful metropolitan area  next to a national park. (See top right in this map.)

1. L & T and the Tatas are building a port in Dhamara.
2. Central government is upgrading Dhamara fishing jetty  to an international fishing harbor.
3. Bharati Shipyard and Appejay group plan to build a shipyard in Dhamara.
4. A railway line connecting Dhamara and Bhadrakh will be build.
5. Good roads will definitely connect Dhamara to nearby National Highways.
6. Dhamara will be a major stop in National Waterway 5.
7. Dhamara is next to the Bhitarakanika National Park (more)

Following is an excerpt from a  report in Tradingmarkets.com.

Tata Steel is likely to start the construction work of its greenfield steel project in Orissa within two months.

“We have got necessary clearances. Work to rehabilitate more than 1,200 families have been completed and now we are going to start the construction by the end of this year,” Tata Steel Kalinganagar project General Manager N A Ansari told PTI.

Tata Steel is seeking to increase the production of steel from 27 MT to 45 MT by 2015 and it will be achieved through greenfield projects, he said and pointed out, “Kalinganagar is the first such greenfield project undertaken by the company outside Jamshedpur.” Tata Steel is setting up a greenfield steel project in Kalinganagar, Orissa, to produce 6 MT of steel per annum and is investing Rs 18,000 crore in the project. The project is scheduled to be commissioned by mid-2009.

When asked whether there has been any delay in the project, he said, “We intend to go little faster, but there has been not much delay and these are usual things happens in any big project.

“We have already placed the order for more than Rs 5,800 crore worth of equipment and materials and all other things related to planning layout and estimates have already been done,” he said.

Speaking about the company’s investments in Orissa, he said, Orissa is one state where it has planned to invest more Rs 35,000 crore in various projects.

TCS has a software development center in Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt from a report in livemint regarding TCS’s plan to establish a training center in Bhubaneswar.

TCS has a training centre for science graduates at Chennai, where it plans to increase capacity to be able to train 3,000 at a time. Besides, it plans to open four more centres at Assam, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar to have an additional capacity of up to 5,000 at an investment of Rs400 crore.

“Scaling up to 30,000 at 10 centres is not a problem for us,” said S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS.

TCS, which reported Rs5,640 crore in revenues in the September quarter, spends 2% of its revenue on employee training.

Ranchi express reports that TATA M.D. B. MuthuRaman claims that Orissa is the ideal destination of investment growth among mineral rich states. Excerpts:

” Pleased with the progress of the company’s Kalinganagar (Orissa) project- especially with the approach of the Navin Patnayak government towards industrial development- Tata Steel Managing Director (MD) B.Muthuraman on Wednesday declared the mine-rich State as an ideal destination for investment growth.

“Of the three states- Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh- where we have announced Geenfield projects, Orissa a doing very well in terms of industrial development. I see the State develop immensely in the next few years,” Muthuraman said at an informal gathering at Beldih Club here.

Tata Steel is setting up a 6-MT Greenfield project in Orissa, besides Korean Steel Giant Psoco and Arcelor-Mittal have also signed MoUs with Patnaik government for setting up a 12-MT Greenfield project each. Among the three, the Tata Steel project may complete early as the company has made much headway in its mission in the last few months.”

” Pleased with the progress of the company’s Kalinganagar (Orissa) project- especially with the approach of the Navin Patnayak government towards industrial development- Tata Steel Managing Director (MD) B.Muthuraman on Wednesday declared the mine-rich State as an ideal destination for investment growth.

“Of the three states- Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh- where we have announced Geenfield projects, Orissa a doing very well in terms of industrial development. I see the State develop immensely in the next few years,” Muthuraman said at an informal gathering at Beldih Club here.

Tata Steel is setting up a 6-MT Greenfield project in Orissa, besides Korean Steel Giant Psoco and Arcelor-Mittal have also signed MoUs with Patnaik government for setting up a 12-MT Greenfield project each. Among the three, the Tata Steel project may complete early as the company has made much headway in its mission in the last few months.” This is in contrast to TATA local head B.D. Panda’s opinion a few days back , that Orissa is notthe frontline state for investment and Bengal is a preferable option.

This could also be construed a favourable response after the NDTV report talking about TATAs sitting on most high quality iron ore in Orissa.

Also, since the news item was in Jharkhand we should look at this news from a competitive perspective.

Following is an excerpt from a ndtvprofit.com report.

… According to sources the company is sitting on iron ore reserves of over 500-600 mt and that could be a reason why the state may not be keen to hand over more reserves to Tata Steel.

While this could trigger a fresh round of battle between Tata Steel and the Orissa government, the later is clear that it wants investments in the state for the reserves it will hand out.

Orissa wants Tata Steel to set up the promised greenfield project of six mt steel plant in Kalinganagar in order to reach Orissa’s target of 75 mt of steel capacity by 2020.

Tata Steel in return wants iron ore mines for plans not just in Orissa but also for expansion in Jharkhand aimed at 12 mt steel plant and Jamshedpur to be expanded to 10 mt from 5 mt currently. …

Following are excerpts from a Telegraph report.

The Indian company, which became the sixth largest steel maker after buying Corus of the UK in January, plans to start construction work on its proposed 6-million-tonne integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar in November. …

Problems over land acquisition and mining leases have slowed progress on the Tata and Posco projects. Mittal’s Jharkhand project is facing the same predicament.

Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman, who met chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening, said the company had sought mining leases for iron ore and expected to get them soon. Corus chief executive officer Philippe Varin accompanied Muthuraman.

The challenge before Tata Steel is now to relocate the families living on the land where the plant will come up. So far 620 of 1,200 families have been shifted. Tata Steel will start construction once another 200 families are relocated.

Varin said Corus and Tata Steel would be working together to set up the Kalinganagar plant and the best technology would be used. The first phase would call for Rs 6,000-crore investment, while the total project would cost Rs 15,000 crore.

The company was allocated 2,000 acres for the plant at Kalinganagar. The Orissa government is to recommend Tata Steel’s case for a mining lease after 25 per cent of the order for the plant and machinery is placed. Sources said the company had started placing orders worth Rs 4,500 crore for a blast furnace, sinter plant and coke oven unit.

The company wants iron ore mining leases at Mankadanacha and Baliapal to be restored. They were scrapped after the company failed to set up a steel plant in Gopalpur in the nineties.

State steel and mines secretary U. P. Singh said the government would consider Tata Steel’s application for mining lease according to procedures. …

The Orissa plant is a building block for Tata Steel’s integration with Corus. It will make primary steel here which will be sent to Corus’s west European finishing mills.

The following article from Samaja explains why people in Orissa (and India) do not believe companies’ promises. If what the article says is true it is shameful on the part of Tatas to behave that way.

Following are excerpts from an azom.com report.

Outotec has been awarded a contract by Tata Steel for the design and basic engineering of an iron ore sinter plant, supply of proprietary equipment and provision of supervisory services for Tata Steel’s new Kalinganagar steel plant project in India. The contract value is around EUR 35 million.

… Outotec’s delivery is part of the first phase of the project and it will be the largest iron ore sinter plant in India to date.

The local portion of the sinter plant project will be executed by Larsen & Toubro Ltd, …

Economic Times reports that Tata Steel has put in an order of 4000 crores for its Kalinganagar steel plant. Following are some excerpts from that report.

Tata Steel’s ambitious 6-million-tonne-per-annum project in Orissa, central to its synergy plans with subsidiary Corus, has finally taken off with the company placing orders worth Rs 4,000 crore for the upcoming steel plant. 

The company, the largest steel manufacturer in the country, had signed an MoU with the Orissa government in 2004 for setting up a Rs 15,000-crore complex that will produce slabs and hot rolled coils.

Opposition from locals and official apathy delayed the project which was to come up in the Kalinganagar Industrial Complex of Jajpur district. …

In two separate announcements earlier this week, L&T said it is supplying and installing sinter plant and blast furnace valued at Rs 1,070 crore and Rs 980 crore, respectively for Tata Steel’s project.

Apart from the sinter plant and blast furnace, the company has also placed orders for steel melting shop and slab caster. “The total value of orders placed is over Rs 4,000 crore. We expect to start construction by the year end or early next year,” said Tata Steel spokesperson.

He added that the first phase of the project is expected to be commissioned by 2010. “Tata Steel Parivar — the resettlement and rehabilitation scheme — is underway. Around 600 families have been rehabilitated under the scheme,” said the spokesperson. The company has been allotted 3,400 acres for the steel project .

Myiris and others report on this. Following is an excerpt.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced on Monday that the company led consortium  bagged orders worth Rs 10.70 billion for supply & installation of Sinter plant and other packages from Tata Steel.

Tata Steel is setting up an integrated steel plant with capacity of 6 million tons per annum (MTPA) in Kalinganagar industrial complex at Duburi in Jajpur district of Orissa to be completed in two phases of 3 MTPA each. The orders are for the first phase of this greenfield project.

Sinter Plant

L&T in consortium with Outotec, Germany bagged EPC (engineering - procurement - construction) contract for 5.75 MTPA Sinter plant valued at Rs 8.36 billion. The company`s share of this order is Rs 6.23 billion. This would be the single largest Sinter plant to be built in India. This is scheduled for completion in 30 months.

Steel Melt Shop

L&T has also been awarded the contract for civil and structural steel works of steel melt shop valued at Rs 2.33 billion. This is scheduled for completion in 28 months.

Recently there were some reports on Greenpeace’s opposition to the Dhamara port. Following are some excerpts of a news report that talks about Tata Steel’s response.

India’s Tata Steel Ltd said it will go ahead with its 24.6 bln rupee joint venture with Larsen & Toubro to set up an all-weather port at Dhamra, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

Tata Steel spokesperson Yogesh Joshi said the company had no intention of abandoning the project and said work will continue as usual. …

Dhamra port is crucial for India as traffic is projected to grow to 2 bln tonnes by the year 2016, and all the ports of the country put together are presently handling only 760 mln tonnes.

Sheltered between the mainland and the Kanika Sands Island on the eastern coast, Dhamra port will be the deepest all-weather port of its kind in India, with a draught of 18.5 metres. It will be able to accommodate super cape-size vessels of up to 180,000 dead weight tonnes.

The following article from Samaja lists the various steel plants in operation and under construction in the Kalinganagar area. They are: Nilachal Ispat Nigam Limited, Jindal, MESCO, VISA, JK Steel, Rohit, Dinabandhu and Maithan which have started production; and Tata Steel which is in preparation.

Following is a roundup on HRD related postings at orissawatch.org.

• Foundation For Excellence (FFE) gave 264 scholarships to students from Orissa
• Orissa engineering colleges in Outlook India ranking
• NISER deadline for submitting application form is extended till June 15 2007
• Chennai B-school in Bhubaneswar and Plan for Insurance University in BBSR
• Specialized government management institutions of Orissa
• Branch changes allowed after first year at NIT Rourkela
• Status of private Medical Colleges in the State
• M.Tech and M.Arch programs in Orissa
• KIIT has approval for 100 Medical (MBBS) and 100 Dentistry (BDS) seats.
• Institutions with Nontraditional programs - a dated list
• Biju Patnaik Film and TV institute advertises for admission into its programs
• Apparently Orissa students are doing well in medical entrance exams
• Tathya: Please no politics over IIT
• Pursuing M. Ed in Orissa
• Ranking of Engineering Colleges in Orissa based on student preferences
• Nursing Schools catch on in Orissa
• TCS recruits 1100 students from Orissa engineering colleges