Tata Steel's Special Economic Zone at Gopalpur in neighbouring Odisha will see some action in the days to come. Smartchem Technologies Ltd will invest  Rs 2,200 crore for a chemical project at the sprawling Gopalpur Industrial Park.

Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the multi- crore Technical Ammonium Nitrate (TAN) project of Smartchem Technologies Ltd on Thursday. Notably, Tata Steel Special Economic Zone Limited (TSSEZ) is fast emerging as a preferred investment destination in India. 

Earlier in July this year, a new tea packaging plant of Tata Consumer Products Limited (TCPL) was inaugurated at the park which has been set up with an investment of over Rs 100 crore.

Smartchem Technologies Ltd is a cent per cent  subsidiary of Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Limited (DFPCL), which is ranked among the top five producers of TAN in the world. 

Smartchem Technologies has signed a sub-lease deed agreement with the developers of the industrial Park, Tata Steel Special Economic Zone Limited, a subsidiary of Tata Steel for setting up this complex that will be spread over 40.24 acres of land. The project is expected to cater to around 30 per cent of the TAN demand in the country.

Smartchem Technologies will produce all variants of solid ammonium nitrate pills, including the medical grade, from the same plant.

Chanakya Chaudhary, chairman, Tata Steel Special Economic Zone Ltd, said, “It is a moment of great pride for us as another valued and prestigious client of ours, Smartchem Technologies, is about to set up a Technical Ammonium Nitrate plant in the Gopalpur Industrial Park. We are eagerly looking forward to lot more investors coming forward in such key sectors, adding to the industrial progress of the region and contributing towards making India self-reliant.”

Gopalpur Industrial Park is located on National Highway-  16 near Berhampur and is just  a two-hour drive from Bhubaneswar. 

Currently, in addition to the tea packaging unit of TCPL, the Gopalpur Industrial Park is host to a 55,000 TPA ferro chrome plant by Tata Steel, a defense manufacturing unit by Anadrone Systems Private Limited, and chrome based industries by East Coast Overseas Private Limited and Odimet Resources Private Limited.