Cabinet okays transfer of Jayashree Chemicals land

The state cabinet today accorded permission for transfer of 107.41 acre land leased out to Jayashree Chemicals Ltd (JCL) in Ganjam district in favour of Aditya Birla Chemicals following a sell agreement signed between the companies in September 2014.

Aditya Birla Chemicals has been asked to pay Rs 34. 61 crore premium payable for half of the land lease period to facilitate the lease transfer of 106 acre land.

"Earlier, JCL had illegally sub-leased 1.39 acres to another company. This land will also be allowed to be transferred in favour of Aditya Birla on realisation of prevailing benchmark value of the land," Chief Secretary G C Pati told reporters following the cabinet meeting. In September last year, Aditya Birla Chemicals India Limited (ABCIL) had acquired the caustic soda making facility of Jayashree for Rs 212 crore. Caustic soda has many industrial uses including its application in refining aluminium from bauxite ore. Aditya Birla group's alumina refinery unit Utkal Alumina International Ltd is also located in south Odisha. Jayashree Chemicals, a S K Bangur Group firm, was provided the land in 1963 for caustic soda and other chemical production and was selling its products and co-products to industrial units located in south Odisha. However, it had been incurring losses for some years due to rising input cost and was in the lookout for selling its unit.

Jayshree's facility had a capacity to produce 57,000 tonnes caustic soda per annum. After the takeover, ABCIL plans to ramp up the capacity of the unit to about 355,000 tonnes per year.

The Aditya Birla Group company has funded the Rs 212 crore acquisition cost through a mix of internal accruals and debt.