BHUBANESWAR: With mineral-based industries in the State facing raw material shortage, the State Government on Saturday requested the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) of the Cabinet Committee Investment (CCI) to expedite statutory clearances of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) at Central Government level.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi requested the CCI-PMG to expedite the forest clearances to proposals of OMC as many of the industries in Odisha depend on the State-run PSU for raw material linkage.
Delay in obtaining forest clearance is hindering exploration of mines. Though the OMC currently has 39 mining leases, only four (two iron ore and two iron ore and manganese mines) are functional and others have remained idle due to lack of statutory clearance and approved mining plan from the Centre, official sources said. The PMG led by Additional Secretary in Union Cabinet Secretariat Arun Goel jointly reviewed the status of about 30 industrial and infrastructure projects with Padhi and other senior State-level officials here.
Replying to a media query after the meeting, the Chief Secretary said around 30 projects in road, railways, coal and power sectors were reviewed and the problems flagged by project proponents were discussed.
Issues relating to land acquisition and forest diversion were discussed and it was decided to resolve those expeditiously, he said. “There has been remarkable progress in implementation of CCI projects in the State and this exercise has yielded very positive results,” Goel told reporters after the meeting.
The major railway projects reviewed included Sambalpur-Titlagarh, Jharsuguda-Baripada-Subdega and Angul-Jharsuguda rail lines. Of the National Highway (NH) projects, progress of the Bhubaneswar-Puri toll road, six-laning of Bhubaneswar-Chandikhol NH, development of Remuli-Raxi-Rajamunda NH, two-laning of Nuapada-Gopamunda NH, Chandikhol-Duburi-Talcher NH, four-laning of Angul-Sambalpur NH, Cuttack-Angul NH, Panikoili-Rimuli NH and Biramitrapur-Barkot NH were reviewed.
Among the power projects, Nagpatnam NSL, Visa Power, KVK Nilachal, Lanco Babandh, PGCIL’s power transmission line between Angul-Jharsuguda and Angul-Sirkakulam were discussed.
Work on the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)’s LPG pipeline from Paradip to Haldia and Paradip-Raipur-Ranchi pipeline and MCL coal blocks development was also discussed, Padhi said. IOCL was requested to allow more LPG connections to the State particularly in rural pockets.
The projects included in ‘Pragati’ programme were also reviewed at the meeting. Principal Secretary in-charge of CCI projects PK Jena outlined the issues for discussion. Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan and Secretaries of Steel and Mines, Forest and Environment, Revenue and Disaster Management, Water Resources, Energy, Industries and project developers participated in the review.