Tata Steel has received environment clearance (EC) for expansion of its Haldia coke plant in West Bengal, Asia's biggest standalone unit, from 1.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 2.2 MTPA, entailing investment of Rs 769.45 crore.
"The Environment Ministry has given the EC to Tata Steel for expansion of its coke oven plant to 2.2 MTPA subject to certain conditions," a senior government official said.
The company has been asked to ensure that the coke oven plant meets visible emission standards notified by the ministry and all affluents should be treated and used for dust suppression and green belt development.
It has also been asked to use maximum water from rain harvesting sources and develop green belt in 33 per cent of the plant area.
Among other conditions, Tata Steel has been asked to spend 2.5 per cent of the total cost of the project towards enterprise social commitment, the official said.
At present, Tata Steel Ltd's Hooghly Metcoke Division operates a coke oven plant of capacity 1.6 MTPA metallurgical coke, adopting advanced Heat-Recovery (HR) coke making technology, at Haldia in Purba Medinipur district.
The plant also generates 120 MW of electric power, utilising the sensible heat of hot flue gas from coke oven.
The power plant is operated by The Tata Power Company Ltd.
As per the proposal, the company wants to expand the coke oven plant capacity to 2.2 MTPA by installing an additional row of batteries of capacity 0.44 MTPA and enhancement of the existing capacity of each row by 0.04 MTPA by adopting better operating procedure and debottlenecking the existing constraints.
The coke making technology for the expansion will be similar to that adopted for the implementation of the existing plant. The capacity of the power generation facilities will also be augmented from 120 MW to 165 MW.
The proposed expansion project will be installed within the available land of the existing plant area of about 72.5 hectare. And the estimated cost of the expansion is Rs 769.45 crore for both coke oven and power plant.
The coal requirement of the existing coke oven plant is met by the captive coal mine of Tata Steel at Jharia, Jharkhand as well as by importing Australian coal. The blended coal (Jharia coal and Australian coal) is used in the coke making process.
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