Bhubaneswar: Expressing concern over poor progress in establishment of the Aluminium Park at Angul, the Centre has urged the state government to expedite the process and complete the project by March 2018.
Secretary of the department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ramesh Abhishek has recently written to Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi in this regard.
In his letter to Padhi, Ramesh said, “I have personally reviewed the progress of the project June 9 this year and found that the progress is poor (physical progress 1.82 per cent and financial progress—Rs 1.57 crore) considering the fact that fund was provided to the project about 18 months ago.”
It was expected that the project would be completed by now as projects under Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (MIIUS) are completed by two years, the secretary pointed out.
The project is being jointly developed by Central PSU National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and state PSU industrial infrastructure development corporation (Idco) on 223 acre land. The project is expected to generate employment opportunities for nearly 15,000 people. The park will be the first project in the subcontinent with a facility to directly obtain molten aluminium from the smelter, sources said.
The project was sanctioned in August 2015 under the MIIUS of DIPP. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 99.6 crore of which the Centre’s share is Rs 33.44 crore. The DIPP has already released Rs 10.03 crore for the project so far, the sources said.
The proposed Aluminium Park would be a state-of-the-art facility with features like a training centre and administrative block. It would also have an Aluminium Product Evaluation Centre furnished with tool room, testing, simulation and evaluation facilities and processing hall. PNN
