The 2,500 acres of land that Tata Group had acquired at Gopalpur in Orissa to set up a steel plant several years ago will be used for setting up of a special economic zone (SEZ), the Chairman of the Group, Mr Ratan Tata, said here on Wednesday.

"We have approached the central government to re-designate the land to be used for developing of a special economic zone," Mr Tata told presspersons after his meeting with the Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik. The proposed SEZ will house an electro-metallurgical industrial complex.

Many world-class strategic developers have already shown interest to invest in the proposed project. The encumbrance-free land, with rehabilitation completed, has been lying unused after the company dropped its proposal to set up a steel mill due to problems pertaining to infrastructure.

Jajpur project
The company, however, is seriously pursuing its proposed six million tonne (mt) steel plant project at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district. The work on the project had been delayed after the firing incident on January 2. The memorandum of understanding for the Kalinga Nagar project was signed in November 2004. The company plans to set up the steel mill in two modules of 3 mt each with a total investment of Rs 15,400 crore.

As the head of the investment commission, Mr Tata also held a meeting with the chief minister and discussed about the new investments that Orissa has been attracting in the recent years.

The investment commission member, Deepak S Parekh, also attended the meeting. The investment proposals, including the steel projects of Posco-India and Tata Steel and thermal power projects of Reliance Energy and the AES Corporation, were discussed in the meeting. A development centre of Tata Consultancy Services, and Ginger, a 'smart basics' hotel set up by a Tata Group company, was inaugurated by the chief minister in the presence of Mr Tata.