This was informed by Tata Steel managing director JJ Irani while talking to newsmen here. The company has spent over Rs 8,000 crore in the last eight years on modernisation programmes, he said.

Irani, who was here to inaugurate the company's corporate representative office on Saturday, said Tata Steel had no plans to take over the public sector giant Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC). ``We will never take over HEC,'' he said.

When asked about Tata's interest in politics, he said, ``The only part we have played in politics is to extend financial assistance.''

He denied having played any role in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections when the company's former managing director Russi Modi was in the fray from the Jamshedpur parliamentary constituency.

Like any other business house, Tata Steel also wants a stable Government at the Centre which could create an environmentconducive to foreign and domestic investments, he said.

Irani said the company was concerned about the present political scenario which was one of the major reason for recession and low growth with business houses worried about investments.

A stable Government with a long-ranging policy to instill confidence among the investors was the need of the hour, he said.

When asked about the urgency behind the opening of company's office in Ranchi, Irani said the complexities of the company's ongoing expansion and modernisation programmes in the changed economic scenario had necessitated a closer coordination with the divisional commissioner, zonal inspector general of police and other central and the State Government offices.

The company's legal interest could be served well through the corporate representative office here, he added.

On the renewal of Jamshedpur's lease agreement, Irani said the delay in settlement of the matter had adversely affected the over all development of Jamshedpur. Even existingindustries like Timkin, Cummins, Ryerson and TEC were reluctant to expand or make large scale investments in the state mainly due to the delay in renewal of the lease agreement, he added. The delay in granting mining permission to Tisco in Noamundi had also affected the company's mining operations and productions in the Jamshedpur steel plant causing loss of revenue to the state.

Expansion of the Tata Electrical Company's (TEC) ambitious power plant has been delayed due to the State Government's apathy, he alleged. Irani while talking about Tata's future plans and the ongoing projects said the company's Rs 1,600-crore cold rolling mill was well on schedule and would be commissioned by June next year.

With a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum the cold rolling mill would cater to the automobile, appliances, engineering and construction sectors, he added.

The mill is equipped with the most modern technology manufacturing and customer service system, he said.