Article Posted on : - Oct 29, 2015

A file photo.

BERHAMPUR, ODISHA (PTI): A Mumbai-based defence products manufacture company will set up a unit in collaboration with UK-based Meggitt Defence System at Tata Steel's proposed Industrial Park at Gopalpur in Odisha's Ganjam district under the 'Make in India' programme.

Ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs 60-crore project was held on Wednesday in the Industrial Park in presence of state s Industry minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Higher Education minister Pradip Panigrahi and senior officers of Tata Steel, Meggitt and Sure Safety Solutions (SSS), which will set up the assembling units of defence products on the 5-acre site.

The company aimed to start production from January 2016. "We expected some more companies will come to Tata Steel's proposed Industrial Park and multi-product special economic zone (SEZ)," said Industry Minister Mishra.

"We will provide infrastructure facilities like air-conditioned shed, electricity and water for the proposed unit," said Managing Director, Tata Steel Special Economic Zone Limited (TSSEZL) Arun Mishra.

Tata Steel had acquired around 2970-acres of land in 1995-96 for establishment of a mega steel plant near Gopalpur.

But it later shelved the plan and decided to set up the multi-product SEZ and Industrial Park in the acquired land.

As an anchor investor, Tata Steel is setting up a ferrochrome plant with an investment of around Rs 400-crore in an area of 400-acres. The plant is expected to start production from January, said MD, TSSEL.

As many as 656 core families and 989 extended families of at least five villages near Gopalpur had been displaced in 1996. The company had provided Rs 1 lakh per acre of land to the land losers at that time, company sources said.

Now, Tata Steel would bear an additional Rs 350-crore towards additional resettlement and rehabilitation package for land losers, said Arun Mishra.