The proposed titanium dioxide project of Tata Steel in Tamil Nadu has been put on hold. The Rs 2,500-crore project was to come up in the monosite, ilminitte sand-rich Tirunelveli district to produce titanium di-oxide. Tata Steel was interested in the project, according to B Muthuraman, managing director, as there has been shortage of titanium di-oxide in the country and also it helped the company?s diversification plan.
The state government and chief minister M Karunanidhi justified the project saying it would catalyse the economic development of the less developed and arid southern districts. It would create job opportunities for the skilled and unskilled, directly and indirectly. The government offered to acquire the land for the project from the people.
While signing the MoU with the government, the Tatas had assured that there would not be any demolition of dwelling units, market price would be given to villagers for land, mining would be done only to a depth of seven meters, there would be no meddling with groundwater resources, and total reclamation and greening of mined areas. Tata Steel said a desalination plant would be set up at an additional cost, as the project area fell in the rain shadow region, with poor availability of water. Only desalinated water would be used for all project activity.
However, these assurances were not enough to blunt the political opportunities it offered to leaders-in-waiting and to the Opposition party leader, J Jayalalithaa.
An anti-tititanium project struggle committee, Federation for Tamil Land Protection, has been formed. Actor Sarathkumar, who is popular among the leading community in the region and is nursing political ambitions, MDMK chief Vaiko and Dalit leader K Krishnasamy issued statements of caution and protest against the Tata project.
The project was revived by the DMK government and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata specially flew in to Chennai to be present when the MoU was signed on June 28, 2007.
Karunanidhi said the government would elicit the views of the people of the area and only with their consent would the project be implemented. Steps are underway to conduct a public hearing on the project. Political, community leaders have welcomed the government order.
There is a strong view in the ruling front that opposition to the project is to protect certain local vested interests that have monopoly over mining of garnet, an export commodity used for sand blasting, in the area.
Meanwhile, ruling party MPs, MLAs and municipal councilors submitted a memorandum to the Tirunelveli district collector asking for implementation of the titanium project aimed at the socio-economic development of the region. The CPM has called for a debate on the project in a special session of the Assembly.