Jindals pay Rs 23 crore to Andhra for land acquisition

JSW Aluminium Limited has paid Rs 23 crore to the Andhra Pradesh government towards acquisition of 867 acres for its proposed Rs 4,000-crore aluminium project in Vizianagaram district.

JSW requires about 1,200 acres to set up a 1.5-million tonne capacity aluminium refinery here. Of this, the state had identified 867 acres of government land under the control of farmers.

"Though there had been protests against setting up of this plant, the company is confident of completing the acquisition process smoothly. It has announced attractive compensation and rehabilitation packages to the land losers including assignees," P Vachaspathi, associate vice-president, JSW Aluminium, told Business Standard.

"More than 78 per cent of the assignee land owners had submitted letters expressing willingness to surrender their lands," he added.

For these land occupants, JSW will pay Rs 200,500 per acre and provide house sites, jobs and equivalent value of the company's equity shares.

Besides, it will construct a rehabilitation colony for the displaced with all infrastructural facilities, and pay Rs 1,500 per month to each displaced family for one year, Vachaspathi said. JSW will also pay Rs 75,000 per acre for these assigned lands to the state government.

In addition, JSW has identified 170 acres of government land and about 150 acres of private land for the project. It is negotiating with private land owners on the price. The company would take 26 months to complete the project from zero date and the construction work would start from the next fiscal.

To meet the raw material requirement to produce aluminum, the company had already tied up with Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation Limited for supply of 4.5 million tonne of bauxite ore per year.