New Delhi, May 26: World's sixth largest steel maker Tata Steel will begin construction work at its proposed 6 million ton steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa in the next two months, a senior company official said.

"Pre-fabrication work has already started while actual construction will commence in two months time-frame," Tata Steel's Chief of Corporate Communication, Sanjay Choudhry told PTI.

The preparatory work including soil testing, site clearing and fabrication of the steel rolling mill is being carried out, he added.

Tata Steel has been planning the greenfield project in Orissa at an estimated investment of about Rs 22,000 crore since 2004 but the slow pace of acquiring land and environmental clearances delayed it.

The company needed about 3,200 acres for plant's construction while another 400 acres for its rehabilitation colony. The land has been acquired. The company claims to have shifted 700 families out of the total 1,100 falling in the purview of its plant site to its newly-built rehabilitation colony.

The company has also placed work orders for purchasing machinery and equipments including blast furnace, sinter plants and slab caster for its Orissa unit.

Post-completion of the plant's construction, the steel major plans to commence commercial production in two phases of 3 million tons each in next 36-40 months.

Tata Steel also proposes to set up two greenfield steel projects of 5 million tons and 12 million tons capacity each in Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand also.