Bhubaneswar: Tata Steel and South Africa-based Sasol Synfuels (Pty) Ltd on Monday expressed their keenness to set up a 3.6-million-tonne per annum Coal to Liquid (CTL) plant in Odisha on a joint venture.

However, the site for the project has not yet been finalised.

Rs 45,000 would be invested in the project.

In this connection, Tata Steel vice-chairman B Muthuraman and Sasol Synfuels (Pty) Ltd Managing Director Ernst Oberholster called on chief minister Naveen Patnaik and at the State Secretariat here and discussed about the proposed project.

The CTL plant converts coal into liquid.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Muthuraman said that the proposed project would be the first of its kind in India and second in the world as there is a plant in South Africa.

As per the plan, the project would be commissioned in 2018 and generate employment opportunities for nearly 35000 people.

The proposed plant will produce 80,000 barrels of petroleum products everyday.

The key and byproducts include diesel, naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas, tar, sulphur and ammonia.

As planned, the companies would produce raw material coal from Arakhpur and Srirampur mines near Talcher.

Besides the township and coal mining areas, the project would require 3,000 acres of land.

They are planning to set up a 1,600 MW captive power plant. The plant would require 24 million gallon of water per day.