Mumbai, Dec 9 (PTI) Smartchem Technologies, a fully-owned subsidiary of Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation, on Thursday said Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for its Rs 2,200-crore technical ammonium nitrate (TAN) complex at the Gopalpur industrial park.

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The project at the Tata Steel industrial park in Gopalpur will have an annual capacity of 377 kil tonne and is scheduled for commissioning by August 2024 and the piling work will begin from January, company chairman & managing director Sailesh Mehta said in a statement.

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Already 50 per cent of the engineering work is completed, he said, adding the plant is strategically located near major mining hubs and the Gopalpur port.

On completion, Odisha will become a key supply source for technical ammonium nitrate and will be able to serve the entire Eastern region where majority of the future mining growth is expected to come.

The complex will generate 1,500 jobs during the project phase and 325 in operational phase, he said, adding the plant will also help cut import bill of Rs 4,500 crore per annum over the first decade of operations.

Deepak Fertilisers is among the country's leading producers of fertilisers and industrial chemicals since 1979 when it was set up as an ammonia manufacturer and has since gone onto become a multi-product company offering industrial chemicals, bulk and specialty fertilisers, farming diagnostics and solutions, technical ammonium nitrate.

The company has manufacturing facilities in Taloja near Mumbai, Srikakulam in Andhra, Panipat in Haryana and Dahej in Gujarat.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)