Vedanta to establish aluminium park in Odisha at Rs 10k cr

Vedanta Ltd intends to invest Rs 10,000 crore in the establishment of an aluminium park in Odisha to facilitate the establishment of manufacturing units by companies that use the metal. This aluminium park is modelled after major industrial towns in other parts of India. The facility will benefit small and medium downstream enterprises by allowing them to set up manufacturing units and draw hot metal from Vedanta's aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda to make their end products. With the goal of developing SMEs and MSMEs in Jharsuguda, Vedanta has committed to supplying 3 lakh metric tonnes of molten aluminium (hot metal) to downstream industries that will set up shop in the proposed aluminium park, the company said. The project is currently being finalised through discussions with the Odisha government. Full capacity expansion and operation must be enabled by the availability of power at a competitive price in order to keep the cost of aluminium production viable for the downstream industry, Vedanta told the media. Since FY16, the state has had surplus power that it has been attempting to sell. Vedanta has urged the state to consider allowing this excess power to be used in the proposed aluminium park, which would lower production costs. In this way, the state's power remains within the state and downstream industry, and job opportunities are created, the company explained. Image SourceAlso read: Vedanta Aluminium vaccinates over 7,500 people across its plants Also read: Vedanta signs MoU with research institutes for bauxite value-creation