Bangladesh government is likely to take a decision on Tata?s much delayed $3 billion project soon.
?We have learnt that Bangladesh government has decide to take speedy decisions on all pending investment proposal of foreign companies. Our project is one of them. The decision is likely to be taken by July 15,? a senior Tata steel official told FE adding that executive chairman of board of investment Nazrul Islam has said that there would be no further delay in approvals.
The other beneficiary could be Global Oil and Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of the Britain-based Mittal Group, which recently expressed its intention to invest $2.9 billion in the country?s petrochemical, coal, steel and power sectors.
The Tata group proposes to set up plants in Bangladesh
to produce steel, power and
fertiliser using natural gas
and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2004. Tata Group is expected to invest around $3 billion in the venture.
However, even after a
series of discussions between the government and the Tata?s on gas price and
other related issues, the proposal is yet to receive a government nod as differences still persist.
Also, the present political instability in Bangladesh had contributed in this inordinate delay. The immediate past government could not reach any decision in this regard and the present dispensation has also given contradicting signals on many occasions.
If the project gets the nod, it will give the company much
relief as it has been waiting for the approval ever since 2004.
Additionally, all its expansion plans in India such as
in Kalinga Nagar in Orissa and brown field as well
as Greenfield in Jharkhand is struck, thanks mainly to problems pertaining to
land acquisition.