By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 28, 2015 : The state owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) plans to invest close to Rs 550 crore in 2015-16 mostly on new projects, officials said.

The state public sector unit proposes to step up its output and focus more on value addition. It has earmarked an outlay of Rs 503.60 crore towards new projects such as a new ore handling plant in Daitari, new chrome ore beneficiation plant at Kaliapani in Jajpur district, and a production project in Gandhamardan mine, an OMC official said adding that these projects will be completed in next two to three years timeline.

Around Rs 31 crore will be spent on civil expenditure as per the capex plans of the state-owned corporation. “The capital expenditure plan of OMC for the current fiscal includes Rs 27.20 crore towards non-civil expenditure (like purchase of equipment’s, machinery) and Rs 31.10 crore for the civil expenditure,” the official added.

The state run corporation is planning to ramp up its output for meeting the requirement of key raw materials like iron ore and chromite of state-based user industries.

Scores of steel, ferrochrome and aluminium companies are facing severe raw material crunch in recent years due to closure of mines due to shortage of raw materials. Keeping this in mind, OMC is now planning to hike its output in order to meet the requirement of user industries.