By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar/Anugul, November 24, 2014

Putting up a manufacturing and industrial plant in the mineral and natural resource rich Odisha is both challenging and rewarding. Be it an individual entrepreneur or a corporate giant, getting the project implemented by factoring all the human, governance and political aspects has been a tough task.

Yet some projects have finally seen the light of the day and one of the prestigious projects after hitting several hurdles is JSPL’s over Rs 22,000 crore six million ton per annum [MTPA] steel and 810 MW Captive Power Plant at Angul district in Odisha.

The project had been ready for the past two years but some of the units could not be commissioned because JSPL was unable to get access to a three km stretch to connect a 25 km pipeline to the nearby Brahmani River from where the Company planned to draw water for the project through the pipeline. Some landowners had refused to give their land for the last mile connectivity by holding dharnas despite adequate compensations and officials just did not act for quite some time. The hapless JSPL authorities, however, finally managed to convince the local authorities and the Community to facilitate the Pipeline to connect the Plant reservoir.

The OP Jindal Group Company has invested more than Rs 22,000 crore in the project and the 1.5 MTPA capacity steel plant is all set for commercial operation. The DRI/Coal gasification route is being used for the first time in the world and has the advantage of using high ash non-coking coal abundantly available in coal rich Talcher belt and can serve as an import substitute of coking coal.

The JSPL has built a Steel Melting Shop with the largest Electric Arc Furnace in India of 250 ton capacity and a 1.5 MTPA Plate mill having capacity of producing India’s widest plate of 5.0 meter. Significantly, the Company has contributed more than Rs. 1,160 Crore as various tax to the coffers of both the state and central governments.

“The project has generated more than 50,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities for the people of this state.  JSPL has been fully adhering to the HLCA’s guidelines of providing 90%, 60% and 30% of jobs respectively under the unskilled. semi skilled, skilled. highly skilled and supervisory. managerial categories to the local people”, JSPL spokesperson said.

As per a study done recently by NABARD Consultancy Services [NABCONS], JSPL project has created enough wage opportunities and consequently poverty induced migration have become very minimized or meager. Rather, there are instances of reverse migration which is a symptom of sustainable development, the report added.

The project has paved the way for drastic improvement in quality of life. Now villagers living in periphery use toilets and dwell in spacious concrete houses. They have electricity connectivity and hence access to television, cell phone and a variety of gadgets.

Another major benefit for the community is upgradation of State Highway-63 – as a mainstream collaborative development initiative of the government – which has become the lifeline of the area ensuring better connectivity with round the clock transport and communication facility to block and district head quarters.

On account of significant increase in purchasing power in the area due to industrialization, the villagers are able to set a good price for their farm and non-farm products without commuting everyday in search of a good market. Improvement in living standards of the people of the area as well influx of huge numbers of workers and employees has developed the market economy of the area to a significant extent.

“After establishment of the mega steel project, there is increase in general outlook and awareness of affected people in the post displacement or land acquisition period. People belonging to all the castes are participating in the community gathering and freely expressing their views. The Tribal families are now residing mixed with general and other caste people in Rehab colony. In Rehabilitation colony, untouchability is not practiced by higher caste people. Uniform access to housing, hospital, school, road, public utilities has been arranged by JSPL,” according to the NABCONS Study.

“We believe that sustainable local development is a key indicator of the kind of holistic growth that any industrial investment can trigger. We have taken up multi-dimensional initiatives to improve quality of life for people in its periphery area villages, besides employing state of the art technology for least environmental pollution”, JSPL vice-president, Prashant Hota said.

Hota listed out some unique social initiatives now being implemented by JSPL: They are  (i) Certified Skill training of more than 2500 youths under OP Jindal Community College (ii) Integrated watershed development in collaboration with NABARD and (iii) the adolescent anemia control in both Chhendipada and Banarpal block through a PPP programme “the Kishori Express”, (iv) Micro Enterprise promotion among 865 rural women through capacity building and marketing linage, (v) Mobilization of 1800 farmers for improving agricultural productivity, (vi) building Community infrastructure to provide drinking water supply, access roads, village electrification, School buildings, Toilets for girl children and micro irrigation infrastructure (vi) providing primary healthcare and ambulance support and (vii) reducing gap in student – teacher ratio through Community Teacher programme.

Dinesh Kumar Saraogi, Executive Director In charge, of Angul facility said, “We are pursuing the vision of our Chairman Naveen Jindal to build the most environment friendly Plant with World Class Technology in Odisha and consciously pursuing the sustainable social development Projects in collaboration with the  state government and  partnership with the  local community. We are confident that the government will facilitate such Value Addition Industries with assured raw material at an efficient and economic price mechanism.”

JSPL has made an investment of about Rs.38,000 crore in Odisha over several facilities including the 6 MTA Steel Plant in phases and 810 MW Power Plant in Angul and MPTA of Pellet Plant at Barbil. .