Unable to run the refinery project to its full capacitysince inception due to scarcity of bauxite, Vedanta Aluminium Limited todayformally informed the Odisha government about its plan to shut down the plantfrom December five.
"We have given a letter to the secretary-cum-commissioner of labour department of the Odisha government about the closureplan. The three month notice is mandatory under the industrial dispute actbefore shutting down operations," Mukesh Kumar, Chief Operating Officer ofVAL told PTI over phone.
Stating that the VAL had designed the smelter plant atLanjigarh in Kahalandi district based on buffer bauxite, Kumar said the companycould not get a gram of raw material from the state.
"Though you (state government) had guaranteed supply ofbauxite raw material in the MoU, the company has not received any during itsfive years operation," Kumar wrote in the letter seeking the stategovernment's help to run the plant.
The company, which made operational its 1mtpa refinery atLanjigarh in 2007, also stated that it could not use the plant to its fullcapacity during the last five years.
"Though we arranged raw material from other states, itwas not possible anymore due to environmental clearance in many places. VALalso could not arrange bauxite from Gujarat as the state government preferredto export the raw material," Kumar said.
Under such a situation, the company incurred a loss of aboutRs 2,500 crore for running the refinery at Lanjigarh, he said in the letter.
The VAL COO also requested the state government to help itby providing the raw material for running the refinery plant after December 5.
"If situation improves within 90 days, the company maynot shut down the plant," he said.
The company has so far invested Rs 9,000 crore in theproject which provided employment to 7,000 people including direct jobs to3,000 persons, the COO said.
Though the company applied for 26 bauxite reserves in thestate, nothing was finalised due to different reasons.
The company required 10,000 ton of bauxite every day to feedits 1mtpa refinery plant.
Steel and mines minister R K Singh said "We have notreceived the letter. The government will examine VAL's issue after getting theletter."