Tata Steel’s greenfield plant at Kalinganagar in Odisha is on track to start production by March 2015, the company’s Managing Director (India and South East Asia) T V Narendran said today.

With work going on at a fast pace in the area, the plant will be ready by March next year, Narendran said to a question here.

The Odisha project is the second integrated unit of the home-grown steel major in India after Jamshedpur.

Meanwhile, referring to the closure of iron-ore mines, he said this has posed challenges for the private steel major.

Of the 2.5 million tonne requirement of raw material, Narendran said: “1.6 million tonne was imported even though our mines are merely a few hundred kilometres away from location.”

It was only a loss for the country, he said while suggesting that the mineral law and regulation be made more transparent and consistent.

Narendran, who was talking to media after inaugurating the first four-day Pan-India Tribal Conclave-Samvaad at Gopal Maidan here, said the country has potential to achieve 7-8 per cent growth rate though it was not an easy task.

The government has to improve the infrastructure sector to realise this pace of growth, he said.

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