Industry must focus on eco friendly mining: Minister at Make in Odisha Conclave

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Steel & Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallik suggested that industry must focus on eco friendly mining to mitigate adverse environmental impacts.

Gracing the Business Leadership Talk on “Mineral Abundance: Opportunities for Industry and State” on day two of ‘Make in Odisha Conclave 2022’ here today, the minister said that Odisha has abundance of minerals and has great opportunities for investors. He emphasized on adoption of technology to reduce adverse impact on environment.

He added that under the 5T intervention of the Govt. of Odisha, utmost transparency has been ensured through i3MS module.

Principal Secretary of Steel & Mines Deoranjan Kumar Singh, who attended the event, spoke about mineral auction, exploration, revamped LTL Policy and raw material evacuation plans of the Government of Odisha to further attract investors in the sector.

He highlighted that the government has plans to put in the best resources of Iron, Bauxite and Manganese blocks in the next phase of auction and said that exploration is one of the prime focus now with the Odisha Mining Exploration Corporation (OMECL) going for a complete resource mapping.

He further said that the long term linkage policy of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has been revamped and rewritten as per which 80% of the minerals produced by OMC shall be given to long term linkage players to ensure that the small and medium industry players are also benefited from this.

He informed that the state government is formulating a very robust mechanism for raw material evacuation plan which will substantially reduce the road transportation by prioritizing slurry pipe lines and rail network.

In the closing remarks, OMC and OMECL’s Managing Director Balwant Singh reiterated, “With the adoption of technologies, advanced logistics and progressive policies, I am sure we will attract interest from many investors at this flagship platform”.

T.V Narendran, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel Limited; Subhrakant Panda, President, FICCI and Managing Director, IMFA; Dilip Oommen, Executive Vice President, AM/NS and CEO, Arcelor Mittal; Bimlendra Jha, Managing Director, Jindal Steel & Power Limited; Tuhin Mukherjee, Advisor, Essel Mining & Industries Limited; Jayant Acharya, Deputy Managing Director, JSW Steel Limited among the industry leaders who shared their views at the event.

The five-day Make in Odisha Conclave will conclude on December 4 (Sunday) with a mega cultural event.