Tata Steel aims to complete the expansion of its Kalinganagar project in Odisha by December next year, a company official said.

The company had commenced the second phase of expansion of its Kalinganagar project in November 2018 to reach the production capacity of 8 million tonnes per annum, from 3 MTPA, with an investment of Rs 23,500 crore.

“We are aiming to complete the project and make it operational by December end next year,” Rajiv Kumar, vice-president of operation, Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK), told PTI in an interaction.

The project includes raw material capacity expansion, upstream and mid-stream facilities, infrastructure and downstream facilities including a cold rolling mill complex, he said, adding that the new blast furnace being installed is India’s largest with 5,870 cubic metres (cum) of inner volume.

The phase 2 expansion will increase the production of flat steel at the plant to meet the growing requirements of automotive, general engineering, oil and gas, lifting and excavation, and other value-added segments in the country, Kumar said.

On the status of the expansion project, the vice-president said around 80 per cent of work stands completed as of date and the remaining 20 per cent is progressing well.

Along with its 8 MT of annual production capacity at Kalinganagar, the total output capacity of Tata Steel’s India operations will reach 26.6 MTPA.

The company has an output capacity of 12 MTPA at its plant in Jamshedpur (including 1 MTPA acquired from Usha Martin), 5.6 MTPA at Tata Steel Meramandali (erstwhile Tata Steel BSL) in Dhenkanal, and 1 MTPA of NINL at Kalinganagar.

When asked about the significance of the expansion project, Kumar said with advanced technologies being installed, Kalinganagar plant will become one of the lowest-cost producers of steel in the world.