The positive signal was shown when some senior executives from Tata yesterday met a number of ministers concerned and senior government officials to pursue for the projects involving a total investment to the tune of Tk 12,000 crore.

They met State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, State Minister for Power Iqbal Hassan Mahmood and Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Kamaluddin Siddiqui. Board of Investment (BoI) Executive Chairman Mahmudur Rahman was also with them.

The visiting Tata team comprising Resident Director MA Pathan and General Manager Sukaran Singh also held meeting with Mahmudur Rahman and is learnt to have sought an appointment with Industries Minister Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami.

The three ministers, BoI executive chairman and prime minister's principal secretary are all members of a committee constituted to review Tata's proposal. The committee, headed by Nizami, is expected to sit

in a meeting on August 22, officials concerned said.

According to Tata's proposal, it will set up a 1,000-mw gas-based power plant and a 4.2 lakh metric tons capacity steel mill somewhere between Iswardi and Sirajganj. It will also set up a fertiliser factory in Chittagong with annual production capacity of 10 lakh metric tons.

Tata is willing to implement the projects in two phases -- in the first phase, it will set up a 500-mw power plant and a 1.2 lakh metric tons capacity steel mill. The capacity will be doubled in the second phase. The capacity of the fertiliser factory will be 10 lakh metric tons from the beginning.

As natural gas is the key for all these industries, Tata wants an agreement for gas supply for 20 years. In response, Mosharraf Hossain said the government has such agreements with companies like Lafarge and AES and it can sign an accord with Tata as well if other conditions are fulfilled.

The minister, however, declined to talk about price of gas right at this moment as he said it will vary in different aspects. "The tariff of gas will depend on quantum of export of the products -- steel and fertiliser," he later told the news agency in support of his contention.

The proposed investment would generate 8,000 jobs and products made by the steel mills and fertiliser factory would be sold in the international market. It will need initially 200MMCFD of gas and another 150MMCFD will be required on completion of the second phase.

If the government gives green signal to Tata's proposal following approval by the committee headed by Nizami, it will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Earlier, Tata had made the proposal when a 16-member Bangladesh delegation led by BoI Executive Chairman Mahmadur Rahman visited Tata International on July 14 and had extensive talks with its Managing Director Sudhir Deoras.