National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has cleared one of the hurdles to start its much delayed Utkal E coal mining project in Odisha after the state government handed it over a parcel of land meant for R&R (rehabilitation & resettlement) colony this month.
"Private land measuring 13.07 acre has been acquired for establishment of R&R colony. Out of it 6.43 acre is allotted to in your favour for providing and maintenance of infrastructure relating to R&R colony," said Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) in its letter to Nalco earlier this month.The state government-run undertaking has retained the remaining 6.64 acre land to distribute the land titles among the beneficiaries.
The acquisition of land for rehabilitation colony was one of the bottleneck for the aluminium maker to get clearances for its proposed coal mining project near the area as there was dissatisfaction among locals over distribution of land titles.
The state government has now decided to distribute the land titles while Nalco will take care of developing the infrastructure for the project. Nalco was allocated the Utkal-E coal block in August 2004 to meet the coal requirement of its captive power plant at Angul. However, it has failed to start operation at the said mines due to protests from locals over price of land acquisition, dispute over boundary with adjacent coal miners , changes in mining plan and delay in getting clearances both from central and state government.
The company has so far acquired all the government land required for the project and is still in the process of acquiring private land measuring 545.45 acre. After intervention from the Centre, the state government recently decided to complete land acquisition by September this year.
"Owing to the delay in disbursement of compensation and completion of land acquisition proceedings, state project monitoring group have decided the land acquisition is to be completed within two months," Idco said in his letter to Nalco mentioning progress about the land buying plan. The company is yet to receive forest and other clearances from the Centre. However, a senior official of the company said it is still sticking to its target of opening the mine by December 2014.
Energy cost makes up to 40 per cent of aluminium production and therefore, every aluminium producer seeks to ensure captive power generation and fuel supply facility. Nalco has been eyeing for an foreign coal block since 2010, but is yet to achieve any major breakthrough.
