Tata Steel MD H M Nerurkar has said that work on the Kalinga Nagar plant is proceeding as per schedule and the first phase, with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes, will be commissioned during the current fiscal, between October and March 2013. The plant will produce flat steel products.

Investments amounting to Rs 11,000 crore have already been made in the plant and during the current fiscal a further Rs 4,000 crore has been allocated towards capex at Kalinga Nagar.

The second phase of this project is expected to be completed by March 2015 and will boost plant capacity to 5.5 mt.

The company will soon be completing expansion work at its Jamshedpur plant, taking its capacity to 8 mt. During FY 2013 it expects to spend about Rs 12,500 crore on capex, with the Jamshedpur plant seeing investments of Rs 2,000 – 3,000 crore.

Nerurkar was speaking at a function organized by management consultancy firm Hay Group and Fortune India where he received the Most Admired Company award. He also said that steel demand would grow by about 8 per cent this year in India, though in Europe, it would be between 2-3 per cent. Due to this, Tata’s European plants may continue to operate at 80-85 per cent capacity. Despite this, Tata STel has earmarked investments of about 400-500 million pounds this year and over the next three financial years on its European unit to continue to upgrade its facilities there.