Keonjhar: With the district administration making efforts, hopes were rekindled over reopening of Orissa Sponge Iron & Steel Ltd (OSIL) in Keonjhar. It may be mentioned here that the plant is the largest in Asia.
Collector Ashish Thakre presided over a tripartite meeting at mini conference hall at the Collectorate Tuesday over resumption of its operation.
The plant management personnel, the officials of the district administration and members of the labour organisation discussed several issues at the meeting.
Issues related to pending dues, problems of labourers and resumption of the plant came up for discussion.
However, the plant management was indecisive on certain demands of the labour union. Things will be clear in the next meeting which is slated October 3.
Labour organisation is optimistic of the plant’s reopening prospects. Labour Commissioner Laxidhar Rath, district labour officer Ajay Kumar Pradhan, director of the Odisha Sponge Iron plant Munir Mohanty, DGM(HR) Majushree Das, ED Sanjib Kapoor, financer Padan Agrawal and labour leader Maheswar Rout were present.
Notably, Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd (OSIL) was incorporated nearly 30 years ago in April 1979, as one of the first joint sector enterprise between Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (IPICOL) and Torsteel Research Foundation in India (TRFI). It was commissioned as the first coal-based sponge iron plant in the country in 1984 at Palaspanga in Keonjhar district.
OSIL set up its Project & Engineering Division at Bhubaneswar in 1992 to enable setting up of Sponge Iron plants in the country based on its patented process. The technology was adopted for use in projects funded by IDBI, World Bank (IFC) and the German Development Bank (DEG) OSIL along with TRFI and Orissa Agro Industries Corporation jointly promoted the first Food Processing Unit in the State under the Company Bilati Orissa Ltd. in 1994 to give an impetus to the farmers and the agriculture industry.