Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday wrote to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal urging him to take steps for restarting the project for up-gradation of infrastructure at the Angul Aluminum Park.
“The Union Government is committed to developing the mineral sector and boost Odisha’s economy. I request your personal intervention in directing concerned officials of your Ministry to undertake a review of the work done so far and restart the project for upgradation of infrastructure at Angul Aluminum Park with a renewed focus on ironing out bottlenecks for an expeditious completion of the project,” mentioned Pradhan.
He also requested Goyal not to take back Central assistance given to Odisha for an aluminum cluster at Angul under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure Up-gradation Scheme (MIIUS) with the objective of enhancing industrial competitiveness of the aluminum industry.
Notably, the infrastructure up-gradatin project entrusted to the Angul Aluminium Park Private Limited (AAPPL) was earlier dropped due to only 7 % work done in two years. Out of project cost of Rs 99.6 crore, Central grant of Rs 33.44 crore had been given to the AAPPL. Due to low progress, that apex committee of the MIIUS had finally issued a closure order on January 1, 2018 and asked the AAPPL to return the released Central assistance.