Centre agrees to restart project to upgrade infrastructure at

The central government has agreed to restart the project for upgradation of infrastructure at Angul Aluminium Park in Odisha.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan thanked Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal for accepting his request to restart the project.

It is a joint venture between Navratna PSU NALCO and Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco).

"Thank CIM Shri @PiyushGoyal for acceding to my request to re-start the project for up-gradation of infrastructure at Angul Aluminium Park in Odisha. The decision is another testimony of Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi's commitment for the development of Odisha and its people," Pradhan said in a twitter post on Tuesday.

"With renewed focus on ironing out bottlenecks to ensure expeditious completion of the project, the Angul Aluminium Park project, a JV between @NALCO_India and @idco_odisha is expected to be completed by July 2020," the Union Petroleum and Steel minister said.

The petroleum minister said that the project is being developed at a cost of Rs 99.60 crore including a central grant of Rs 33.44 crore.

The proposed facility, spread over an area of 223 acres, will be a major infrastructure boost for the aluminium downstream industries, Pradhan said.

Pradhan's request came after apex committee of Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (MIIUS), in November 2018, decided to drop the project citing slow progress.

In December last year, Pradhan had written a letter to Goyal seeking his personal intervention to restart the project, which had been approved in August 2015, and initiate steps for its speedy completion.

He had also urged Goyal to review the work done so far on the project to upgrade infrastructure at the Angul Aluminium Park in Odisha. The project was dropped citing slow progress.

Pradhan had also sought restoration of Central assistance sanctioned for the proposed aluminum cluster at Angul under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure Up- gradation Scheme (MIIUS).

An agency, Angul Aluminium Park Private Ltd (AAPPL), had been entrusted to implement the project.

The Angul aluminium park, spread across 223 acres, is dedicated for downstream and ancillary industries in the aluminium sector.

Pradhan has said that the government has already received many investment proposals for the Aluminium Park in Angul and the project would create around 15,000 job opportunities.