Debasish Acharya
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 26: State-run mining major, Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) has a capital expenditure plan of close to Rs 550 crore in the current financial year with majority of the investment earmarked towards new projects.
As the corporation embarks upon an ambitious plan to ramp up its output and focus more on value addition, Rs 503.60 crore will be invested on new projects. Similarly, Rs 27.20 crore is earmarked for non-civil expenditure that includes purchase of equipments and machinery.
Around Rs 31 crore will be spent on civil expenditure as per the capex plans of the state-owned corporation. “The capital expenditure plan of OMC for the current fiscal includes Rs 27.20 crore towards non-civil expenditure (like purchase of equipment’s, machinery) and Rs 31.10 crore for the civil expenditure,” a top official of the OMC said.
On new projects, the official said, “Rs 503.60 crore will be invested towards new projects such as a new ore handling plant in Daitari, new chrome ore beneficiation plant at Kaliapani in Jajpur district, and a production project in Gandhamardan mine.” “Though these projects will be completed in next two to three years but we hope the amount earmarked will be spent on these projects within the targeted time period,” he added.
The capex plan for this fiscal is far higher than the last fiscal of around Rs 30 crore. As per the state corporation, the company expended Rs 5.90 crore for non-civil purposes, Rs 17.38 crore towards civil expenditure and Rs 6.5 crore towards projects.
The higher expenditure can be gauged from the fact that after reopening of mines in the state with recovery seen in domestic economy, the state run corporation is planning to ramp up its output for meeting the requirement of key raw materials like iron ore and chromite of state-based user industries.
Many state-based steel, ferrochrome and aluminium companies are facing severe raw material crunch in recent years due to closure of many mines in the state. However, OMC is now planning to hike its output in order to meet the requirement of user industries and the capital expenditure plan is aimed at attaining this objective of providing assured supply linkage to user industries.
