Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly said on Friday that the steel plant project he is promoting in a partnership at Garbeta, located in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district, is expected to become operational within the next 18-20 months. The project is expecting an investment of Rs 2,500 crore to establish the 0.8 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) steel plant, as per the officials.
“We’re building the steel plant. But the problem is that everybody expects it to be ready in two months. But that doesn’t happen realistically. Hopefully, we’re looking at operations in the next 18-20 months,” Ganguly said at an event.
“This will be our third and biggest plant. There are several clearances required, including environmental, pollution, and government approvals, which take time,” he added.
The project was originally proposed at Salboni, but it did not materialize. Now, the company has acquired land in Garbeta, approximately 26 km from Salboni.
“It will be an 8 lakh tonne (0.8 MTPA) capacity plant. The project is coming up at Garbeta and not Salboni. Total investment is estimated at Rs 2500 crore,” a senior official from the joint venture partner told PTI declining to be quoted.
Ganguly, who has also been a former chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCL), has partnered with Captain Steel, a TMT bar manufacturer for the greenfield steel project, which currently operates two plants with a combined capacity of 5 lakh tonnes.
With the addition of a new greenfield facility is set to increase total production capacity to 1.3 million tonnes, according to an official statement. The project, which requires approximately 350 acres of land, is currently in the process of land acquisition. Ganguly first announced the steel project during Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Spain in 2023. At the 2025 Global Investment Summit earlier this month, Banerjee remarked that Ganguly is expanding his horizons beyond cricket and is now venturing into the industrial sector with plans to set up a steel plant in the state.