Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik today laid the foundation stone of the proposed Rs 4,000 crore bauxite mining and alumina refinery project of the Sterlite Industries Ltd at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi distrtict amidst protests by the local tribals who anticipate threat to their environment on account of the project.
The project, to be established by Sterlite Industries Ltd, will have an initial alumina refining capacity of one million tonne annually. "The new project will pave the way for development of a backward district like Kalahandi", chief minister said while laying the foundation stone.
He said, bauxite will be explored from the Nivamgiri hills and the company will be given mining lease over an area of 1073.4 hectres. The estimated bauxite reserve in the area is about 73 million tonnes.
More From This Section
Earlier, about 300 tribals, who have been opposing the project on the ground that it will pollute the environment and affect the waters of river Bansadhara, which originated from the foothills of the Nivamgiri hills, marched towards the site of the foundation laying ceremony.
However, they were stopped by the police about 3 km from the site. The alumina refinery will be constructed with an infrastructure to support subsequent expansion of capacity to 1.4 million tonnes based on the 150 million tonnes of bauxite deposit committed by the Orissa government as per the MoU. The company will also set up a 100 MW captive power plant.
Addressing the function, the Sterlite Industries chairman, Anil Agrawal said that most modern methods will be employed by the company to conduct bauxite mining while the project will provide direct employment to between 750 to 900 people. Besides, an additional 2500 people are expected to be benefited by the project indirectly, he said.