Orissa to have 'Monitoring Mechanism'

The Orissa government has decided to put in place a monitoring mechanism within a couple of weeks to check the progress of industrial players who have signed MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with the state.

The progress of projects in different sectors like steel, power, aluminium and cement will be monitored by the respective secretaries every month.

The state Chief Secretary T K Mishra will review the progress of these projects once in a quarter.

"The state government will put in place a mechanism to review the progress of the projects by companies that have signed MoUs with the state . The mechanism will also include as to whether the companies that have signed MOUs are complying with the MoU norms or not”, C J Venugopal, chairman of Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol).

The decision to start a monitoring mechanism to check the progress of the MOU signed companies was taken at a follow-up meeting of the last High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) chaired by the Chef Secretary.

The meeting also discussed about the responsibility of the MOU signed companies to give special emphasis on the development of ancillary and downstream industries around the sites of their projects and create employment for the locals to be displaced by their projects, added Venugopal.

It may be noted that as many as 88 companies have signed MoUs with the state government in sectors like steel and mines, aluminium, power and cement.

These companies have employed 70 per cent of the people within the state in the jobs created so far by their proposed projects.

As many as 24,877 jobs have been created till now by the MoU signed companies out of which 17439 people engaged are within the state while the remaining 7438 have been recruited from outside the state.

At its last meeting held on August 10 this year, the HLCA had cleared the capacity expansion plans of Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), Aditya Aluminium Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd and Ind-Barath Energy Utkal Ltd besides approving new investment proposals in power and cement sectors.

The HLCA had cleared three new proposals in the power sector- SPI Ports Ltd, NSL Nagapatnam Power Ltd as well as KU Projects Ltd while approving the change in location of Kalinga Energy & Power Ltd from Babuchakuli in Sambalpur district to Sodamal in Jharsuguda.

In the steel sector, the HLCA cleared a stainless steel unit of Rohit Ferrotech and a downstream steel park of Bhushan Steel Ltd.