Decision on raw material supply to local industries soon: Govt

Following assembly members' concern over ore scarcity faced by various industries in the state, Odisha government today said it would soon take a decision on supply of raw materials to local industries.
"The Inter-Ministerial Committee on ore supply to local industries has already submitted its report to the government. We will soon take a decision to streamline ore supply to the state-based industries," Industries Minister Niranjan Pujari told the Assembly.
While replying to a question, he said the government was formulating a long term plan for establishment of major industries basing on infrastructure availability and raw material linkage.
The state has enough mineral to supply ore to different industries, the minister said.

Earlier, the members belonging to both Congress and BJD had alleged that the local industries were suffering facing raw material shortage even as the state reserved a huge amount of mineral of different kinds.
Pujari said of the 92 MoUs worth Rs 5,01,026 crore signed by the government since it came to power in 2000, only 40 projects worth Rs 1,84,108.07 crore have started production so far and work has begun on 48.

Three big ticket projects - Posco, ArcellorMittal and Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) - are among the projects which have not seen the light of the day so far.

While the world's largest steel maker Arcellor-Mittal has abandoned its plans to have a 12 MTPA steel plant in Keonjhar district in July, Vedanta has been facing problems to get bauxite to feed its one million tonne refinery plant at Lanjigarh.
Similarly, Posco has scaled down its 12 MTPA plant at Paradip to 8 MTPA due to several factors.