Tata Steel gets land for Haveri project

While West Bengal is dithering over the policy of land acquisition for industrial development in the state, the Karnataka government has completed the land acquisition process for the integrated Tata Steel and Tata Metaliks project at Haveri district.

“The Karnataka government has acquired 2,500 acres at Haveri for the integrated plant of Tata Steel and Tata Metaliks,”  Tata Steel vice-president (Corporate Services) Partha Sengupta told reporters on the sidelines of Global Investors’ Meet, 2012, roadshow of Karnataka industry and tourism ministries.

“The coal needed for the three million-tonne plant, to be operational in two years, will be imported. Iron ore will be sourced locally,” Sengupta said.

Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner of Industries of Karnataka government M Maheshwar Rao said: “The State government’s policy on land acquisition is to give compensation at market rates. Information Technology, biotechnology and aerospace were the three top industries where the State is on top. There are more than 500 multinational companies operating out of Karnataka, of which 80 belonged to the Fortune 500 list.

“The State has 58 Special Economic Zones creating more than 97,000 jobs.”

The press conference was a curtain raiser by the Karnataka government to woo investments from West Bengal by organising road shows ahead of the Global Investors Meet 2012 to be held in Bangalore in June this year.

“We welcome investments from industrialists of West Bengal in Karnataka,” Minister for Large and Small Industries Murugesh B Nirani said.

Notices have been issued to the farmers for acquiring 2,500 acre of land for Tata company’s proposed plant in Haveri. As many as 250 farmers will lose their land if the government goes ahead with the acquisition process. The land for the proposed factory is yet to be acquired.

The Tata company recently sponsored a trip for farmers to Jamshedpur and about 40 farmers visited the Tata plant to see its working and the welfare programmes taken up by the company for the affected farmers there.