KOCHI: The prestigious Titanium Complex project to be set up in Chavara has taken a meaningful step forward with the Kerala Government having floated a global invitation seeking expression of interest (EoI) for preparing detailed project report (DPR).
Titanium Complex, which is dubbed a project that would give a boost to the industrial policy of the present government is being established at a 150-acre land earmarked near Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) in Chavara.
Though KMML already produces titanium variants of titanium dioxide and titanium sponge, the unprecedented growth in aviation industry, ocean engineering, medical science and space research has inevitably necessitated increased production in this area.
Once commissioned, the new entity will be able to not only reduce the dependence of the country on imports, but to a good extent could export its products to the global markets as very few countries currently have the ‘titanium capability’ to produce certain components and derivatives.
During an earlier interview with businessbenchmark.news, the Industries Minister AC Moideen had said that the new venture would seek to increase the capacity of the existing production of titanium variants and derivatives currently done at KMML on the one hand and more importantly, would explore possibilities of research and development in this area.
India is considered to be the seventh country with titanium capabilities in the whole world after the countries such as China, US, Russia, Japan, Germany, etc.
A preliminary study on the project has already been conducted by the government. The new venture, which is being conceived as a private public partnership (PPP) project, will have an investment in the region of Rs3,000 crore,” Moideen had said during the interview. However, the exact extent of investment will be known only after the detailed project report (DPR) is ready.
There were widespread complaints about huge funds having been frittered away in the pretext of bringing new products and projects to KMML earlier. To a specific query on this, the minister had said, “I know there were a couple of other projects that couldn’t take off in KMML though big money was wasted. We will make sure such things never happen in future.”
