The UK-based Vedanta Resources will ink a deal with the Bengal government tomorrow to set up an aluminium smelter and a power plant at a cumulative investment of Rs 20,000 crore. Vedanta is a metals and mining group listed on the London Stock Exchange with annual sales of $1.9 billion.
It will be the second biggest investment in the state after the Jindals’ proposed steel plant at Salboni, worth Rs 35,000 crore. The Vedanta project, involving 6.5 lakh tonnes of smelter and 3,000MW power, will come up at Bidhanbag, Asansol, where its group company Balco has 200 acres. The company will need another 800 acres.
It will be the second biggest investment in the state after the Jindals’ proposed steel plant at Salboni, worth Rs 35,000 crore. The Vedanta project, involving 6.5 lakh tonnes of smelter and 3,000MW power, will come up at Bidhanbag, Asansol, where its group company Balco has 200 acres. The company will need another 800 acres.
The agreement will be signed between Vedanta Aluminium and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) in the presence of Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and industry minister Nirupam Sen. “This will be the first large scale investment in the aluminium sector in Bengal, where a number of steel makers have already flocked to,” WBIDC managing director M.V. Rao said. The company said it had chosen Bengal, which has no bauxite, because of two reasons: one, it already has land in the state and two, the state has coal deposit and would help the company get coal blocks for its power plant.
Source: The Telegraph
11th March, 2008