By Bizodisha Bureau Bhubaneswar, January 5, 2016 : Anil Agarwal owned Vedanta’s fledgling alumina refinery at Lanjigarh has something to smile.

The Odisha Pollution Control Board (OPCB) has extended, for another five years, the consent to establish period for expansion of the refinery project currently incurring huge losses due to raw material shortages and depressed market conditions.

The pollution board has extended the consent period till February 15, 2020 for 6 million tonne per annum (MTPA) refinery project at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, an OPCB official said on Monday.

He said the project proponent has proposed to expand capacity from present one MTPA to 6 MTPA as well as captive power plant up to 285 MW in a phased manner.

However, for the expansion up to 6 MTPA refinery plant, the proponent will obtain an amendment of environment clearance after completion of land acquisition of the balance area of 666 hectare as per conditions stipulated in environment clearance.

The refinery project of Vedanta is facing acute shortage of bauxite to run the plant and is incurring Rs 3 crore loss every day due to non-availability of domestic raw material.

The Vedanta Group has pumped in more than Rs 60,000 crore investment in Odisha on facilities like the Lanjigarh refinery, a 2,400 MW coal-fired plant near Jharsuguda and two aluminium smelters in the vicinity of the power plant.

The expansion of the refinery has been stalled due to statutory and regulatory reasons.