Odisha plans to restore coastal green cover
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
The commission during its recent visit to the state from October 3-11 scrutinised records of 81 mines out of a total of 186 mining leases The Justice M B Shah Commission of enquiry which is set to visit Odisha for the third time from October 31 will take up field verification of select mines in Koira sector in Sundergarh district. “During its last visit, the Shah Commission had confined its probe to checking file records of all iron ore and manganese ore lessees. This time, they have communicated to us regarding their plan to visit a few mines in Koira circle. The probe panel will take up field verification during October 31-November 3,” said a senior steel & mines department official.
The public accounts committee (PAC) of the Parliament led by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi will visit Odisha soon to scrutinize alleged irregularities in coal block allotments in the state between 2005 and 2009. The nine-member panel will also examine the procedure followed by the state government in recommending coal blocks for private as well as PSU firms. Besides, the panel will check the status of coal blocks allocated to Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), a Coal India subsidiary.
Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) resumed operations at its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district on Monday, after remaining shut for 10 days due to shortage of bauxite, the main raw material to produce alumina. While the 75 MW captive co-generating plant (CPP) of the complex has been restarted, process is on to resume the operation of the refinery at a reduced capacity.
VAL will first start its captive co-generating plant (CPP) to generate steam, necessary for running the refinery A week after a temporary shutdown of its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, Odisha, Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), buoyed by bauxite supplies of 40,000 tonnes from Bharat Aluminum Company's (Balco) Kawardah mines in Chhattisgarh, is readying to restart the plant on Monday.
Global metals & mining major Rio Tinto said it was not keen on exporting iron ore to be produced from its proposed mining project in Odisha, maintaining that its priority was to cater to raw material needs
Says it has made significant progress in securing the minimum required land for the project Steel maker Posco India has sought an extension of the in-principle approval for its multi-product special economic zone (SEZ), proposed to be set up near Paradeep in coastal Odisha. The approval for the project expires on October 25. The steel maker has requested the Odisha government to forward its no-objection certificate (NOC) to the board of approvals under the Union commerce ministry, as required under Rule-4 of SEZ Rules, 2006.
The Australian High Commission is pinning its hopes on the Odisha government and the Centre's new Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) MMDR Bill to pave the way for revival of its mining giant- Rio Tinto's iron ore mining project in the state. The mining behemoth was to take up the $2 billion project jointly with state controlled miner- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC). However, of late, OMC's reluctance to revive the project seemed to have queered the pitch for Rio Tinto.
Another Vedanta Group firm courts trouble in Odisha After Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), a subsidiary of London listed Vedanta Resources Plc, was forced to shut its aluminium refinery in Odisha recently for want of bauxite, another group firm- Sterlite Iron & Steel Company has got a jolt. Since the land to be acquired for the steel project to be executed by the company falls under ayacut area, the state government is all set to withdraw notification already issued for takeover of private land totaling to 1,805.85 acres. The land was to be acquired in seven villages at Polasponga, the site of the project in Keonjhar district.
Acquisition of additional 700 acres of land for the Posco mega steel project, which was stalled temporarily due to the company’s lack of commitment on periphery development work, is set to be completed in two months. While the state government had acquired 2,000 acres of land, the South Korean steel major needed additional 700 acres for setting up an eight million tonne plant in the first phase. The company which needed 4,004 acres inall, would later scale up capacity to 12 million tonne after receipt of the balance land.
Procurement of government land by industries in Odisha is set to get dearer with the state government deciding to fix cost of such land at benchmark value, a departure from the existing system of offering government land at pre-determined rates. The decision comes close on the heels of clearing of the new Land Acquisition Bill by an empowered group of Central ministers. While the cost of land had escalated, the government land rates in Odisha were not revised accordingly. The state government which had constituted three committees to consider possibility of benchmarking cost of government land has now entrusted the responsibility on its investment promotion agency- Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol).