Central team takes stock of bottlenecks to big infra projects

Projects of Indian Oil, JSPL, Aditya Aluminium mired in delays

Worried about the delays encountered by big-ticket infrastructure projects in Odisha due to slow regulatory approvals and law and order issues, a Central government team took stock of their actual progress to expedite them.

A 14-member team of highly placed officials led by Anil Swaroop, additional secretary, Cabinet secretariat reviewed the status of 44 projects in the state across sectors like mining, power, steel, railways and petroleum & natural gas. The team had last reviewed the status of 22 major projects in the state in August this year.

Swaroop lauded the steps taken by the state government in facilitating the implementation of the large projects.

"We have taken this review for facilitating and fast tracking the projects. I am happy that the state government machinery has taken shown a pro-active approach in successful implementation of the projects”, Swaroop told newspersons after the review.

Apart from projects in coal mining and railways, the progress of projects committed by developers like Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd (JITPL), Aditya Aluminium Ltd, GMR Kamlanga and Lanco Power were vetted.

IOCL's 15-million-tonne-per-annum refinery at Paradip, taken up at a cost of Rs 29,777 crore, is battling law and order problems that have deteriorated at the project site. The state home department has assured to look into the matter. The project has achieved a physical progress of 93.2 per cent.

The oil major's Paradip-Raipur-Ranchi pipeline is also facing law and order problems at Paradip. The project cost is estimated at Rs 1793 crore and it is 72 per cent completed.

IOCL is also facing delay in commissioning its 710-km Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline due to delay in receipt of no-objection certificate from the state government for forest clearance. Physical progress on this project, being implemented at a cost of Rs 913 crore, is only 29.52 per cent.  

JSPL that has already invested over Rs 18,000 crore on its six million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant at Angul, is awaiting action from the state government on renewal of memorandum of understanding (MoU) and grant of iron ore linkages. The steel maker that recently commissioned its steel melting shop (SMS), is hopeful of achieving two mtpa steel capacity in a couple of months. The total project cost has been worked out at Rs 29288 crore.

Allotment of captive iron ore mines is also an issue for Essar Steel. The proponent has committed an investment of Rs 22587 crore on a six mpta steel facility and 12 mtpa pellet plant at Paradeep and also a 10.7 mtpa beneficiation plant at Dabuna.

Aditya Aluminium Ltd is awaiting forest clearance for opening up Talabira-II and Talabira-III coal blocks for its 0.35 mtpa aluminim smelting facility and 900 Mw CPP at Lapanga near Sambalpur. The firm has lined up an investment of  Rs 13195 crore.

Both GMR Kamalanga and Lanco Babandh Power Ltd are eagerly awaiting prospecting license for the Rampia coal block.

Coal mining projects that went under the scanner include Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd's (MCL) Hingula open cast project, Machhakata coal mine project to be developed by Mahaguj and Rampia coal block to name a few.

The team also reviewed the physical progress of key rail link projects like Paradip-Haridaspur, Angul-Sukinda and Jharsuguda-Basundhara.