Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, who announced plans to establish an integrated steel plant with his friend at Salboni in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur, will execute the project with the assistance of Captain Steel, a senior official confirmed.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as we embark on the construction of our third steel plant in Bengal. Many may think I only played the sport, but we initiated a small steel plant in 2007, and within five to six months, construction of our new steel plant in Medinipur will start," Ganguly said.

"Sourav is a close friend of ours and we have had a long-standing association. With Sourav's support, we aim to establish a steel plant in West Bengal. We have approached the government with a request for a minimum of 600-700 acres," Captain Steel director Sanjay Gupta told PTI.

"Our goal is to establish a one-million-tonne capacity integrated steel plant with a tentative project cost of Rs 2,500 crore," Gupta said with indications that land has been allocated to them.

He expressed hope that the company would soon secure necessary licenses required for the project.

"Our tentative target is to commence production within two-and-a-half years," he added.

Gupta also mentioned that Ganguly had been the brand ambassador for Captain TMT bars, one of the company's major products, for over 15 years.

He said Captain Steel will be the main investor in the project and the details of "interest" from Ganguly will be worked in due course.

Captain Steel group with a turnover of Rs 4,000 crore is engaged in TMT bar and ferro alloy production and has two plants, one near Durgapur and one in Bihar.

The project will come up on the same land parcel where the JSW group had initially planned to set up a mega steel plant, but it failed to materialise due to concerns related to raw material security. It is believed that the group will surrender a portion of the 4,700 acres allocated to them as it will not be required for their cement and paint projects.

Ganguly, who was in Spain along with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to address the 'Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS)' roadshow in Madrid on Thursday, expressed optimism about commencing the construction of the state-of-the-art facility within the next six months.

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