Vedanta group today said it is optimistic about getting bauxite supply for its refinery plant at Lanjigarh from Odisha by end of this fiscal, as it also announced investing Rs 100 crore on a medical college hospital in backward Kalahandi district in the state.
This was announced by Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources, the London-headquartered mining and metals conglomerate, after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
"We have been assured by the chief minister to get bauxite through the state run Odisha Mining Corporation by March next," Agarwal told reporters.
Agarwal said though he had invested Rs 50,000 crore in the state since more than one decade, the success was yet to come. "However, I hope more excitement in future as Odisha is the land of potential," he said.
Asked how he was optimistic about getting raw material support from the state as similar assurance was also given in the past without effect, Agarwal said: "I have been given good assurance this time."
The chief Minister himself told his officials at the meeting that as Vedanta has made huge investment, it is our responsibility to support him," he said.
Vedanta group, which has established a refinery project at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district and a smelter plant and a power plant at Jharsuguda, has been starving for raw material even as its refinery plant is located amidst heaps of bauxite.
Agarwal also expressed his company's interest to expand Aluminium Park project in Jharsuguda. He said local entrepreneurs will get all support in the proposed Park.
On main problem of his company in Odisha, Agarwal said, "It is bauxite, bauxite and bauxite." The company has invested Rs 50,000 crore of FDI in Odisha, but its refinery and smelter plants are running with only 40 per cent capacity, he said adding though the capacity of refinery is now 2 MTPA, it could BE 6 MTPA in future with availability of bauxite.
Agarwal said he loved Kalahandi and therefore agreed to invest Rs 100 crore for setting up a medical college hospital there as soon as the state government puts forth a proposal in this regard.
"It may require 18 months for completion of the medical college hospital project," he said adding that the state government will run the medical college and hospital.
Earlier this month, Odisha's Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick had said the state government has decided to provide raw material linkage to Vedanta's alumina refinery project at Lanjigarh from the Kodingamali bauxite mines in Koraput district.
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