Odisha government assures Vedanta on feedstock for Lanjigarh plant

The Vedanta Group has been assured by the Odisha government that its Lanjigarh smelter will get its raw material linkage by March 2017, Chairman Anil Agarwal said on Tuesday.

After meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here, Agarwal said the government has assured him that Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) would provide the feedstock for the smelter in Kalahandi district, which is currently not running to its full capacity.

The company has already invested Rs 50,000 crore and looking at expanding to two million tonne per annum (mtpa), he said.

The present capacity of the plant is one mtpa.

"If we get bauxite from the state government, we will expand it to six mtpa," said Agarwal.

Vedanta's smelter and refinery are currently not running to their full capacity due to shortage of bauxite to feed the plants.

Earlier, Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick had said the state government is planning to supply bauxite to Vedanta's Lanjigarh alumina plant from Kodingamali bauxite mines in Koraput.

Meanwhile, Odisha government on Tuesday announced setting up a government medical college in Kalahandi district for which infrastructure would be provided by the Vedanta Group.

Vedanta would provide Rs 100 crore to develop infrastructure to set up the medical college and hospital, said Agarwal.

The plan to provide a medical college in Kalahandi was anticipated after Odisha government got some bad press about a tribal man walking 10 km carrying his wife's body on his shoulders because no ambulance was available.

--IANS

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