Odisha: Dharmendra seeks restart of Angul Aluminum Park upgradation

Bhubaneswar: Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written to Union Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal urging the latter for restarting the project for upgradation of infrastructure at Angul Aluminum Park in Odisha.

“Keeping in mind our Government’s commitment to develop the mineral sector in Odisha and boost the State’s economy, I request your personal intervention in directing concerned officials of your Ministry to undertake a review of the work done so far and restart the project for upgradation of Infrastructure at Angul Aluminum Park, with a renewed focus on ironing out bottlenecks for an expeditious completion of the project,” Pradhan said in the letter.

“I also request to restore central assistance to the Odisha Aluminum Cluster at Angul under MIIUS with the objective of enhancing industrial competitiveness of the aluminum industry by providing quality infrastructure facility in the cluster which has the potential to become globally competitive,” he added.

Notably, project was earlier dropped due to  dismal progress. Implementing agency Angul Aluminium Park Private Limited (AAPPL) informed that there was no progress in the project due to resentment among locals. Also, Project Management Agency (PMA), on physical verification of the project, reported that overall physical progress was about 7%.

The upgradation project was accorded final approval in 2015 with project cost of Rs 99.6 crore including central grant of Rs 33.44 crore under Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme(MIIUS) with a duration of 2 years implementation period of the project from the date of approval.