Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly on Friday said that the steel plant project being promoted by him in a partnership at Garbeta in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district is expected to be operational over the next 18-20 months. The much-hyped project is expected to witness an investment of Rs 2,500 crore to establish the 0.8 million tonne per annum (MTPA) steel plant, an official said. "We're building the steel plant. But the problem is that everybody expects it to be ready in two months. But that doesn't happen realistically. Hopefully, we're looking at operations in the next 18-20 months," Ganguly said at an event. "This will be our third and biggest plant. There are several clearances required, including environmental, pollution, and government approvals, which take time," he said. The project was initially proposed at Salboni, but that didn't materialise and now the company has secured land at Garbeta, which is about 26 km from Salboni. "It will be an 8 lakh