The Hindu Business Line : CCEA approves revised cost estimate for Nalco unit

THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the revised cost estimate of Rs 398.36 crore for a rolled product unit of National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) at Angul in Orissa. The project is to be completed in six months.

The 50,000 tonnes per year rolled product project has been completed partially and the company has already incurred an expenditure of Rs 365.89 crore on it till December 31, 2003, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, told presspersons here after the CCEA meeting.

The cold rolling mill of the unit was commissioned on March 31, 2002, and the marketing of rolled product on November 30, 2002. The casters and other associated facilities are to be completed within six months of today's approval, an official statement said.

Coal-mining projects

The CCEA also approved two opencast coal-mining projects — Bhubaneswari and Kaniha — of Mahanadi Coalfields in Orissa as part of its efforts to meet the fuel shortage. The Bhubaneswari opencast coal-mining project would need a capital investment of Rs 336.68 crore and incur a completion cost of Rs 418.81 crore, Mr Chidambaram said.

The Kaniha opencast project will cost Rs 106.88 crore on completion and require Rs 96.18 crore of capital investment.

While the Bhubaneswari project is targeted to produce 10 million tonnes of grade F (non-coking) coal from ninth year of operation, the Kaniha unit will mine 3.5 million tonnes of the same coal variety from the fourth year of operation.

Coal produced from the Bhubaneswari project will be supplied to linked customers like National Thermal Power Corporation and other State Government-owned thermal power stations.

Bhubaneswari has total coal reserves of 741 million tonnes, of which 374 million tonnes will be mined by this project, an official said.

Kaniha has total reserves of 756 million tonnes, of which 93 million tonnes will be produced by the project.

Mahanadi Coalfields will come up with an expansion programme for the Kaniha project in 12 months, the official said.

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