)
The Hindalco group company, Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), which started alumina production from its plant in south Odisha about four months ago, is unable to transport the material to its end use plants pending permission from the railway authorities to operate the rail link.
“About 13-km-long railway track from the plant site at Tikiri to Deragada in south Odisha’s Rayagada district has already been completed. The company is waiting for the permission from the railway authorities to operate the line. The permission is likely to come by the end of this month” said a company official.
In the absence of transport facility, alumina produced in the plant are being stocked near the plant site.
The powdery material which is converted into aluminium in 2:1 ratio through the smelting process are destined to be sent to Hidalco’s two upcoming smelter plants at Lapanga in Odisha and Mahan in Madhya Pradesh, which are nearing completion, sources said.
Meanwhile, 1.5 million tonne capacity Tikiri refinery of UAIL, which is currently under the stabilisation process, is operating at a low capacity of 25 to 30 percent. It has produced around 30,000 tonnes of alumina so far. The plant will take another six months to reach the full capacity, said a senior officer of the company.
After facing delays of over two decades due to protracted agitations over land acquisition and environment issues, UAIL started its trial production in June, this year. The alumina refinery is powered by a 90 Mw co-generation plant. Its captive bauxite mine, located at Baphilimali on Rayagada and Kalahandi district border, has capacity to produce 4.2 million tonne bauxite per annum. The mine is located about 17-km from the plant site. Before commencing its mining operation, the company had procured some raw material from its captive mine in Madhya Pradesh for the trial production. ‘Raw material is not a problem for us. Around 4 lakh tonnes of bauxite have been raised from the captive mine in last four months”, he said.
UAIL has invested about Rs 7000-crore in the refinery project. Worried over the delay in implementation of the project, two of its original promoters, Tata Sons and Norsk Hydro had pulled out of the project earlier, while another foreign partner, Alcan, had also sold its stake in 2007.
