Tata Realty & Infrastr-ucture (TRIL), Tata Group’s real estate and infrastructure development arm, has

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hired Singapore-based Jurong International as the master planner for its special economic zone (SEZ) project in Gopalpur (Orissa).

“We have shortlisted Jurong for this important project,” said a Tata group official. Jurong offers design and build, consultancy, construction, and facilities management services and its India office is located in Hyderabad.

The multi-product SEZ, with all infrastructure facilities and required amenities, will cost the group nearly $ 1billion.

So far, Jurong has done master plans for 380,000 hectares, 10 million square meters of industrial land and 5.8 million square meters of residential space.

The SEZ in Gopalpur will focus on minerals, mining and associated industries. At present, Tata Steel possesses the land slotted for SEZ. In 1995, Tata Steel acquired the land for Rs 150 crore to set up a 2.5 million tonne per annum port-based steel plant in Orissa and spent. This plan had to be abandoned due to lack of amenities such as adequate water and iron ore linkages at the site. Now, Tata Steel is putting up a multi-million tonnes per annum steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa.

“We plan to focus on industries that are downstream value-added in the metals and minerals space and allied industries such as gem and jewellery for the SEZ, which is planned to come up in 2,900 acres. The land is already in our possession and the necessary approvals are in place. So we expect that this development will not face any land acquisition related problems,” a TRIL official told Financial Chro-nicle.

“The positioning of the SEZ has been made keeping in mind the advantages of the local area and infrastructure such as a functioning port that’s capable of deep draught, an air strip and railway slidings that could be utilised by the industrial units in the zone,” added the official.

TRIL has also been tasked with developing several SEZ projects of the group, including one in Tamil Nadu that will

also have a star hotel by

the Tata-controlled Indian Hotels. TRIL is also constructing eight SEZs across the country for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The SEZs that will have TCS as the anchor tenant are being set up at Hinjewadi, Thiruvana-nthapuram, Kochi, Ahme-dabad, Hyderabad, Kolk-ata, Nagpur and Mang-alore.