Jamshedpur, Feb. 27: Come March, Tata Steel would begin work on its greenfield project at Kalinganagar in Orissa.

Putting an end to all speculations over the beginning of the project, Tata Steel chief operating officer H.M. Nerurkar said: “We would begin work on the project in March. Talks are on with the Orissa government and the mining lease issues would probably be cleared by March-end.”

The six-million tonne project would aim to achieve a turnover of over Rs 1,00,000 crore in this fiscal. Elaborating on Tata Steel’s plans for both greenfield and brownfield projects in eastern India, Nerurkar added: “The Chhattisgarh government is about to finalise the rehabilitation and resettlement policy and if plans fall in place, work would begin on the project.”

While Tata Steel officials spoke about the plans laid up for coming years, at a separate session on expansion plans drawn up by domestic steel majors in the next decade, leading steel conglomerates like SAIL and Usha Martin too laid out its future plans across India and especially Jharkhand for the next 15 years.

“SAIL would invest about Rs 53,000 crore for its expansion plan across the region of which 80 per cent of the investments would be concentrated in Jharkhand,” A.K. Singh, the assistant general manager, (public relations), SAIL, told The Telegraph. SAIL would also undertake a massive expansion of Bokaro Steel Plant.

“We are also developing the mine areas with the introduction of world-class technology and once completed, it would be the largest steel producing company in Jharkhand,” added Singh. The conglomerate is also in the process of charting a future growth plan for enhancing hot metal production capacity to the level of 60 million tonne.

Moreover, Usha Martin Industries has allocated Rs 2,100 crore for its various expansion plans at its Jamshedpur unit. The company plans to enhance steel production to one million tonne per year by 2010-2011. “The company has set up infrastructure to produce .36 million tonnes based on the business model of using the mini blast furnace plus coal-based sponge iron,” said Gopal Sharan, the UMI general manager.

The Usha alloys and steel division would also produce a wide variety of carbon alloy and beating steel bars for t he automotive industry by 2010-2011.