Nalco moving out of Odisha

Nalco moving out of Odisha?
October 04, 2010 3:46:37 PM

PNS | Bhubaneswar

The change of guard at the Odisha-based National Aluminum Company Limited (Nalco) about a year ago seems to have brought in a significant shift in its focus, which may not go in favour of the State. AK Srivastava took over the Nalco chairmanship about a year ago.

Nalco has made its intentions clear by mentioning in the documents circulated to the media at a meeting on September 30 that it now plans to set up its future projects at any suitable location in India. This is contrary to the documents circulated by the public-sector company a year before having specifically mentioned a few locations within Odisha for those projects.

Answering a question at the news conference, Srivastava said that the company is still looking for possible sites within the State, an idea which was also supported by the company's finance director BL Bagra. However, none of them definitely said that the projects would be located in the State.

Srivastava said that Surat in Gujarat is the possible site for a nuclear power plant that was declared more than a year ago as Nalco's joint venture with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited.

Even a proposed wind energy venture is said to be located anywhere in the country while many experts are of the view that the mines area of Nalco at Damanjodi in Odisha's Koraput district, where the company's smelter is situated, is quite suitable for such a project.

Observers feel that if Nalco's intentions are translated into action, it will be a clear betrayal of the interests of the State because Nalco is widely viewed as being able to achieve the Navratna PSU status by using the resources and peaceful industrial climate of the State while giving back hardly anything of substance.

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