Tata also proposed yesterday to set up a co-ordination committee drawing officials of both Tata and the government to ensure speedy implementation of Tata ventures.

A seven-member Tata delegation led by S Manzar Hossain, an executive of Tata Steel who has been named to head the Dhaka office, yesterday met State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain.

The Indian business conglomerate recently proposed to invest $2 billion in power, steel and fertiliser, among others, in a first such huge investment proposal from any Indian company.

The Tata officials told the minister that a representative of the Board of Investment (BoI) should head the co-ordination committee that should also have representatives of other ministries related to Tata's investment proposal.

Tata will start a feasibility study soon and the co-ordination committee could expedite the inputs for the study, they observed.

Mosharraf told journalists after the meeting, "We will place Tata's suggestions at the National Co-ordination Committee headed by the commerce minister. We hope to form this co-ordination committee (for Tata) very soon."

Tata's feasibility study will cover how steel raw materials from India can be imported and which port is the most convenient for such import. "To produce one ton of steel, 1.7 ton of iron ore needs to be imported from India," Mosharraf noted.

Tata will also see how gas pipeline for their industries here should be installed and which could be the potential locations for the pipeline and the proposed industries.

"Tata wants to complete the study fast. It wants to take loans from multilateral lenders on the basis of that study and get the ball rolling," the state minister said.

The Tata delegates arrived in Dhaka on Friday and will fly out today leaving Manzar Hossain behind. They also met State Minister for Power Iqbal Hasan Mahmud and high government officials on Sunday. They visited different sites for setting up the industries.