Orissa is a better destination than Jharkhand:chambers

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Representatives of two leading Jharkhand chambers of commerce who recently visited Orissa say the latter is the better of the two states as an investment destination.

Jharkhand is yet to come out with its rehabilitation & resettlement (R&R) policy, without which no industrial house can acquire land for greenfield projects in the state. Orissa, on the other hand, has already acquired land at many places to develop various industry clusters, such as those for steel at Kalinganagar and aluminium & power at Jharsuguda, etc.

The delegation also visited the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp-promoted auto-component manufacturing complex at Mania (near Choudwar) that houses the RSB group's multi-product auto-component plant and vendors.

Other automobile manufacturers from Jharkhand and elsewhere who may be interested in setting up facilities in Orissa are also likely to be allotted land in the complex.

SKCCI president AK Srivastava led the five-member delegation, which consisted of members of the Seraikela-Kharswan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SKCCI) and the Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCC&I).

The delegation met Orissa principal secretary (industry) Chinmay Basu and Industrial Development Corp of Orissa Ltd (Idcol) managing director Ashok Mina.

Jharkhand has been facing a power crisis for quite some time now, with the JSEB, which still awaits unbundling, frequently being unable to supply the 100 mw that the industrial area at Adityapur has been demanding for years now.

Srivastava told FE here Friday that Orissa, which had around 200-mw surplus power, was putting up generation capacity for an additional 17,000 mw that would be in place in 10 years.

"The price of fully developed land, with infrastructure such as road, water and power, was also quite low there, with an acre in the industrial area of Kalinganagar coming to around Rs 3.50 lakh," said Srivastava.

Orissa signed an MoU with Tata Steel in November 2004 for a 6 mt integrated steel plant at the Kalinganagar industrial complex at Duburi in Jajpur district that would involve an investment of around Rs 15,400 crore.

The project, which has not been able to take off as the original inhabitants of the project land were not willing to vacate, is now poised to start soon as the issues are being sorted out jointly by the steel major and the state government.

"Power in Orissa is available at around Rs 2.70 a unit, while it is much costlier in Jharkhand," said Suresh Sonthalia, vice-president of the Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCC&I), who too was with the delegation.