Business Standard, Sept 30, 2008
Sterlite Industries (India) Limited (SIIL), whose proposal to source bauxite from Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district for its Rs 4000 crore refinery at Lanjigarh got the clearance of the Supreme Court recently, hopes to start mining of bauxite within a year.
“We are in the process of obtaining the forest clearance and environmental clearance from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). The mining of bauxite can go into full scale in about a year”, P K Panda, vice-president (mining), Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), told Business Standard.
The mining plan, meanwhile, has been approved by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), Nagpur. After receiving the MoEF clearance, the company will go for construction of conveyer belt, approach roads, infrastructure at the hill top and the provisions for power and water before the start of mining. Combinedly this will require an investment of Rs 250 crore making Niyamgiri ready for mining.
The investment includes about Rs 120 crore for Forest Diversion Proposal (FDP), Rs 35 crore for construction of roads and Rs 80 crore for construction of a new conveyer belt to carry bauxite from the mine at the hilltop to the plant at the foothill. Besides, about Rs 15 crore will be spent on making provisions for electricity and water.
The Supreme Court in its judgment on 8 August this year had given clearance for diversion of 660.749 hectares of forest land for mining of bauxite at the Niyamgiri hills.
The length of Niyamgiri hill range is about 20 kms and it is spread over an area of about 250 square kms. Out of this, the mining lease is given for an area of 7 square kilometre, while the actual mining activity will be taken up over 3.5 square kilometres.
On the possibility of displacement of tribals belonging to Dongria community, a senior company official said that there will not be any displacement in the mining site. “Some people were shifted for the refinery and all of them have been rehabilitated”, he added.
It may be noted, 118 families belonging to 7 villages were displaced to make way for the refinery project at Lanjigarh. But the total size of affected population, which includes people who lost their land for the project, is 1236 families belonging to 27 villages.
Meanwhile, the company has chalked out an expansion plan for the Lanjigarh refinery in Kalahandi district of Orissa at an estimated investment of about Rs 9000 crore. Under it, the capacity of the refinery is proposed to be increased to 5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) from existing 2 mtpa.
The expanded capacity will be in phases and is expected to be complete by 2012, company sources said.
Similarly, the company is also expanding its smelter capacity to 0.5 million tonne by 2010 from 0.25 mtpa at present at an investment of Rs 4000 crore. Besides, it will have a captive power plant (CPP) of 1215mw at an investment of Rs 4400 crore.
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