Vedanta Ltd. plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore in setting up an aluminium park in Odisha to facilitate companies that use the metal to set up their manufacturing units in the facility.
“This aluminium park is along the lines of major industrial towns in other parts of India. It will generate additional livelihood for more than 1 lakh people and will touch the lives of more than 4 lakh,” the Anil Agarwal-led company said in a statement on Thursday.
The facility will benefit small and medium downstream enterprises, which can set up their manufacturing units and draw hot metal from Vedanta’s aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda to make their end-products.
“With an objective to develop SMEs and MSMEs in Jharsuguda, Vedanta is committed to supplying 3 lakh metric tonnes of molten aluminium (hot metal) to the downstream industries who shall set up their facilities in the proposed aluminium park,” the company said.
Currently, discussions are under way with the Odisha government to finalise the project.
“Full capacity expansion and operation has to be enabled through the availability of power at a competitive price to keep the cost of aluminium production viable for the downstream industry,” Vedanta said.
The state has surplus power since FY16, which it has been trying to sell. Vedanta has urged the state to consider allowing this surplus power for use in the proposed aluminium park, which would reduce the cost of production.
“This way, the power of the state remains within the state and downstream industry and job opportunities are created,” the company said.