The joint venture between Tata Steel and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation – Hoogly Met Coke and Power Co. Ltd. (HMCPCL) - has got the allotment of the land required for setting up the project for producing metallurgical coke and power at Haldia. In a significant step forward, the company was given possession of the required land at Haldia last week.

In another significant milestone, the company issued letter of intent to Beijing Sino – Steel Industry and Trade Group (SSIT) for sourcing the technology from Shanxi Provincial Chemical Design Institute, China, as well as setting up the coke oven project on a turnkey basis. The project in the first phase is expected to go on stream by early 2007.

The joint venture company proposes to set up a Merchant Coke Oven Plant at Haldia adopting heat recovery (HR) route with a capacity of 0.8 million tones of coke annually at the completion of phase-one. The project is intended for supplying of high quality metallurgical coke to the international as well as to the domestic customers. It will also cater to the requirements of Tata Steel. Considering the necessity of producing world class low ash metallurgical coke, the entire coking coal requirement will be imported from countries such as Australia, Canada, CIS countries, New Zealand, USA, Poland and Indonesia.

HMCPC Limited will also generate 60 MW of electricity by utilizing the sensible heat of the hot flue gas from the Coke Ovens. The power generated by this company will be sold to the West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB).

Tata Steel and WBIDC had executed the joint venture agreement on January 12, 2005 in Kolkata for formation of this joint venture in the presence of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Chairman, Tata Sons, Mr Ratan Tata. A Memorandum of Agreement for power purchase was also signed between Tata Steel and WBSEB on the same day. The Power Purchase Agreement was formalized and signed with WBSEB on April 12, 2005. The project has reached this stage of execution expeditiously due to active support of the West Bengal State Government, Ministry of Shipping and also the Port Trust Authorities.