Sesa Goa Ltd, a subsidiary of Vedanta group, has decided to shut down the operation of its two plants in Goa owing to scarcity of iron ore as the transportation has been banned due to monsoon.

The closure is imminent within the next 24 hours as the raw material stocks are running dry, a company spokesman said here.

The pig iron plant and metallurgical coke plant situated in Amona village of Bicholim taluka are slated to be shut down and feared to affect 1,200 employees working in both the industries.

The company has said the plants are being stopped as they are not able to get iron ore from its own Codli mines in South Goa after the district collector stopped transportation of ore, pointing out to the accidental conditions on roads during monsoon.

“Now the stoppage of transport inside Goa has finally brought the death nail on Sesa Goa’s plants which are running since 1992 without stopping for a single day,” the spokesman said.

“For the last one year, the supply of iron ore from Karnataka has also become scarce and very costly due to closure of all mines there as per Supreme Court order and stocks getting sold in e-auction,” the spokesman added.

The closure is also going to affect the power supply to the state, as the State Government buys 14-16 MW power from Sesa Goa’s gas-based power plant.

The spokesman said that the company’s expansion plans are also going to be affected with the current development. After expansion, the company was projected to almost double its capacity from the existing 2.8 tonnes of met coke.

“Sesa Goa has invested about Rs 650 crore which incidentally is the single largest investment in a manufacturing facility in Goa in the last 4-\—5 years. The new plant is also ready for commissioning any day right now,” he said.

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