Reported by Sandeep Pattnaik
Bhubaneswar, Jan 5 :

Nalco which has earlier set a CAPEX target of Rs 1734 crore for 2013-14 FY has revised the target to Rs 542.5 crore. Till Nov’14 Rs. 282.50 crore has been spent, CMD of the company Anshuman Das revealed to OST.Anshuman Das NALCO

“The initial CAPEX target which was set at Rs. 1734 crore, included Rs. 894 Crore towards 2 x 700 MW Nuclear Power Plant in JV with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) at Kakrapar, Gujarat. Although Nalco board has approved 26% equity participation which is Rs. 894 crore, clearance from Cabinet Committee on Security, Government of India is awaited,” the CMD added.

The company has an ambitious plan of investing around Rs 22,000 crore in the Greenfield projects in Odisha, Das said.

It includes one Greenfield project which is presently underway i.e. Utkal-E Coal Block near Angul. NALCO has already invested Rs. 120 crores in this project which has an outlay of Rs. 338 crore.

The PSU alumina major is also eying to set up a new alumina refinery of 1 million TPA at Damanjodi at a cost of Rs. 5540 crores, subject to getting the mining lease for Pottangi mine. Besides, a 5 lakh TPA Smelter and 1260 MW captive power plant (CPP) in Odisha are in the pipeline, involving a cost of Rs. 16345 crores.
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" The viability of these projects is dependent upon allocation of coal block,” Das said.

The company is also likely to be a part of the green energy revolution by investing a sum of Rs. 84 crores for 14 MW wind power plant (WPP) at Damanjodi and Rs. 1.25 crore for 160 KWP for roof top solar power in Bhubaneswar.

NALCO is considering foraying into making titanium slag, which is an intermediate product for other titanium related products, in JV with Indian Rare Earth Limited (IREL). The illmenite produced by IREL at their Odisha Sand Complex at Chhatrapur will be used as feedstock for the process.

This will help in import substitution of titanium slag, the Nalco CMD said.