Odisha gets India’s first greenfield ferrochrome plant at Gopalpur

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the first greenfield ferrochrome plant of Tata Steel in India on Wednesday.

The 55,000-tonne per annum (TPA) ferrochrome plant is set up by Tata Steel at a cost of Rs 542 crore in its Gopalpur Industrial Park in Ganjam district.

It is also the first plant in India to use briquetting method of chrome ore fine agglomeration. The plant is a unique environment-friendly unit with state-of-the-art pollution control equipment and technology such as ETP (effluent treatment plant) and STP (sewage treatment plant).

It has 100 per cent water-harvesting facility that caters to most water requirements of the plant. It has an indigenously built semi-closed hybrid furnace, a first of its kind in India in which components are procured from all over the world to maintain high standards of quality and safety.

The ferrochrome plant is expected to set a high benchmark in technology and on other performance parameters ensuring a higher stakeholder value.

“Gopalpur Industrial Park should see a lot more investors coming forward, adding to the industrial progress of the region,” Tata Steel (India and SEA) MD T V Narendran said.

There is expectation of new investment coming into Tata Steel Special Economic Zone (SEZ) over the next few months.

Besides the new unit at Gopalpur, Tata Steel has two other ferrochrome plants in Odisha – a 65,000 TPA plant at Bamnipal in Keonjhar district and another at Athagarh in Cuttack district of 55,000 TPA capacity under management of its subsidiary T S Alloys.

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