Union Minister urges Govt. of India for the onset of NALCO’s brownfield expansion project in Odisha

On 4^th January 2021, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan delivered a letter to Prahlad Joshi, Coal and Mines Minister proposing him to increase the production capacity of Nalco’s Aluminium smelter plant at Angul.

Pradhan in his letter has urged Joshi to take required steps for increasing Nalco aluminium smelter plant’s capacity to 1 MTPA from existing 0.46 MTPA given the availability of alumina at Angul (1.5 MTPA).

The National Aluminium Company (NALCO) is endeavouring a brownfield expansion project for their Aluminium Smelter Plant at Angul district in Odisha.

Pradhan wrote in his letter: “The expansion project is being undertaken to increase the capacity to 1 MTPA from 0.46 MTPA, which incorporates the construction of a 144 MW feeder Captive Power Plant (CPP). The cost of the project is estimated to be around INR 22,000 crore and at present, it is still at the land acquisition stage.”

However, Nalco’s bauxite production capacity will rise from 7.3 MTPA to 10 MTPA after operationalization of Pottangi mines and out of this, up to 3.1 MPTA consists of Alumina which has potential to be produced into 1.5 MTPA of aluminium.

“Aluminium smelting is a highly power-intensive process and the feasibility of this brownfield expansion project is heavily dependent on a steady supply of affordable coal to the 1400 MW CPP for the uninterrupted bulk generation of power. I propose for the commissioning of the feeder CPP for the brownfield expansion project in Angul district which will benefit from logistical efficiencies due to its strategic location in proximity to the smelter unit and coal block,” Pradhan pointed out.