By IANS,
New Delhi : The special economic zone (SEZ) of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) at Salem in Tamil Nadu will be ready by 2010, S.K. Roongta, chairman of the state-owned steel giant, said Friday.
“It will be spread over an area of 230 acres of land, and will be ready by 2010,” Roongta told reporters here after Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan released his ministry’s four-year report card – ‘Forging New Frontiers’.
He said the public sector undertaking (PSU) has the requisite permission of the Board of Approvals of the ministry of commerce and industry to develop the SEZ exclusively meant for the steel sector.
The PSU steel giant has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), an investment banking institution, for forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop, operate and maintain the SEZ.
Regarding the quantum of investment steel SEZ would attract, Roongta said that such details had not yet been worked out.
“It will take some to make an assessment for investment,” he said.
SAIL will provide land to the SEZ, and will offer customised steel products to prospective units that come up in the economic zone.
“These units will manufacture architectural facades, railway applications, dairy plants, chemical and pharmaceutical plants, machines for the food processing industry, tubes and pipes, auto components, panels for lifts, and so on.”