Odisha's Steel and Mines ministry draws on the issue of raw material shortage for end-use plants

With mega industries like steel and aluminium units facing acute shortage of raw materials, the Odisha government has taken steps to tackle the problem by augmenting mineral production.

"We are taking necessary steps to ensure availability of adequate raw materials for the industries and meet the target of Rs 6,500 crore revenue from mining set for the current fiscal which at present shows a shortfall of around Rs 1,200 crore," Odisha's Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick said in a meeting organized this week as part of efforts to solve the problem pertaining to raw material.

The meeting also brought into focus the shut down of Vedanta group's alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district due to lack of bauxite.

A company official from Vedanta said that the company’s alumina refinery and smelter are operating with only 25 per cent of the capacities. He also added that the bauxite for the refinery was sourced entirely from other states of India and abroad and not from Odisha.

He said that the Chairman of Vedanta Resources Anil Agarwal, who met the Odisha chief minister recently, had stressed on the significance of their plants as national assets and suggested that they should be utilized to full capacity in order to generate optimum revenue as well as to provide employment to indigenous people.

Though Vedanta plant was ready to manufacture 20 lakh metric tonne of aluminium per annum in Odisha, raw material has been creating a major issue in implementing the strategy, the spokesperson said. In order to promote value-addition industries, Odisha has signed MOUs with 93 industrial houses including 48 in steel, 28 in power, 3 in Cement, 3 in Aluminium, one in Oil refinery, 4 in ports and the rest in downstream parks in Steel and Aluminium Sector attracting about Rs 9 lakh crore of investment, official sources said.

But investors are of the opinion that despite the high expectations the industries have been hit by shortage of raw material on account of near total mining ban in the state.