Aditya Aluminium Ltd, a unit of AV Birla group company Hindalco Industries, has lined up Rs 10,000-cr expansion plan to ramp up capacity of its aluminium smelter and captive power plant (CPP) proposed at Jharsuguda in western Odisha.
The aluminium company intends to double smelter capacity from 0.36 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 0.72 mtpa and scale up CPP capacity from 900 MW to 1650 MW.
“Aditya Aluminium has presented a capacity expansion plan to the state government. But the expansion has not been referred to the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) yet. The Single Window committee has asked the company to abide by certain conditions recommended by the state task force on aluminium at its last meeting held in January this year,” a top official source told Business Standard.
The task force on aluminium had urged the company to establish a campus of BITS-Pilani simultaneously along with the implementation of the project. It has suggested the company to bring in additional investments to set up industries in sectors other than aluminium for creation of employment opportunities and revenue generation. The company was asked to submit a detailed report to the state's investment promotion agency-Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol).
Moreover, the task force had recommended to the company to set up a 100-bed hospital, a quality school and an industrial training institute (ITI_ at a suitable location in consultation with district authorities.
Aditya Aluminium had signed MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Odisha government on April 8, 2005 for establishment of a one million tonne per annum alumina refinery at Rayagada and 0.36 mtpa aluminium smelter plant at Jharsuguda at an investment totaling to Rs 10,725 crore. In the aluminium sector, Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) is the lone company to have started operations, creating 4,285 jobs so far for people within the state which represents 72.35 per cent of its overall employment figure.
The company was operating a one mtpa alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district and a 0.25 mtpa aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda. RSB Metaltech was the other player to have committed investment in the aluminium sector. The home grown business conglomerate had proposed a total investment of Rs 6,800 crore towards setting up of 0.70 mtpa alumna refinery at Rayagada and 0.175 mtpa aluminium smelter cum 450 MW at Dhenkanal.