Tata Steel signs JV with TPC
The Financial Express — November 23, 2006

Tata Steel has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with Tata Power Company (TPC) to set up captive power plants in Chattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. This joint venture aims to meet the power and steam requirements to support the expansion plans of the company in the above states.

Tata Steel will hold 26 per cent equity in the venture, with TPC holding 74 per cent equity. Under this agreement, the company will consume the power generated from these plants, thus meeting the requirements of captive plant norms stipulated by the centre's captive power plant policy.

The company release said that as a part of this initiative, TPC would initially set up a 120 MW captive power plant for Tata Steel in Jamshedpur based on utilising the waste gases from the steel-making process. However, the release is silent over the investment size in the three captive power plants.

This apart, the company has not specified the captive capacities to be developed in Orissa and Jharkhand. Tata Steel will set up a greenfield integrated steel plant in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh with a manufacturing capacity of 5 million tonne per annum. The project will be developed in two phases with two million tonne per annum in the first phase. The project also includes development of captive iron ore mines.

In Orissa, Tata Steel had already inked an MoU with the Orissa government way back in November 2004 for the establishment of a six million tonne per annum integrated steel plant in Kalinganagar industrial complex, with an investment of Rs 15,400 crore. In Jharkhand, the company will set up a 12 million tonne per annum greenfield integrated steel plant in two phases, with an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.