Vedanta plans to invest Rs 7,000 crore in Orissa

Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources Plc on Thursday announced that it will be investing Rs 7,000 crore in building a 500,000-tonne alumi...

Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources Plc on Thursday announced that it will be investing Rs 7,000 crore in building a 500,000-tonne aluminium smelter in Orissa. This is part of Vedanta’s Rs 15,000 crore ongoing investments in the Indian metal industry.

Speaking to newspersons here, Anil Agarwal, CEO of Vedanta Resources — the parent firm of Sterlite Industires, Balco, Hindustan Zinc, Malco and Vedanta Alumina — said: ‘‘This is a major step in our vision to create 1 million tonnes of aluminium capacity to meet the growing demand in India. We have already brought in FDI worth $1.5 billion to fund our existing projects.’’

The London Stock Exchange-listed company — owned 54 per cent by Bahamas-registered company of Agarwals — is already spending close to Rs 9,600 crore to build a new alumina unit and increase capacities of its aluminium, copper, zinc and lead plants in India. It is also conducting a feasibility study to set up a Rs 12,000 crore steel plant in Orissa.

The project in Orissa, which includes a 1,000-mega watt power unit, will be done in two phases over three to five years, he said. ‘‘Initial project development work including land acquisition, feasibility studies and the government approval process is underway,’’ Agarwal said.

Vedanta plans to source alumina, an intermediate product in aluminium production, for the smelter from its alumina refinery being set up in Orissa with a capacity of 1 million tonnes. It plans to raise the capacity to 1.4 million at a later stage.

In India, Vedanta is expanding its existing aluminium production capacity to 400,000 tonnes a year from 140,000 tonnes, copper capacity to 300,000 tonnes from 180,000 tonnes and its zinc smelter to 400,000 tonnes from 230,000 tonnes, Agarwal said.