Orissa is expected to see brisk activity on the industrial front this year. As the state is likely to go to polls anytime after mid-year, both the ruling parties, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will certainly make efforts to see some activities on the ground by industrial houses, which too will try hard to ensure that their projects are pushed through during the year.
South Korean steel major, Posco-India, has already announced that it would hold the ground-breaking ceremony on April 1, 2008 commemorating the foundation day of both Orissa province and Posco. Incidentally, chief minister Naveen Patnaik also said that the 12 million tonne steel project would be put on the ground in April 2008.
Tata Steel has also announced that its greenfield steel project in Orissa would be launched some time during the year. Tata Steel, which has already placed orders for equipment is, in fact, racing against time to prepare the ground for starting the project work.
London-based Vedanta Resources, too, has lined up programmes for commissioning of its alumina refinery, aluminium smelter and captive power plants (CPP) this year. The first phase 2.5 lakh tonne smelter at Jharsuguda is expected to start production by February-end. The 675mw CPP is scheduled to be synchronised this month. The one million tonne refinery, which has started trial production, is likely to go for commercial production with the Niyamgiri bauxite mines getting operational by the year end.
While the Naveen Patnaik government is desperate to see chimneys spewing smoke before the poll dates are announced, the Opposition is bent upon stalling these projects by finding fault with the government’s industrial policies.
Former Congress chief minister and the leader of the Opposition, JB Patnaik, has demanded that the Posco project be located somewhere else in Jagatsingpur district instead of the fertile Kujanga area, while his party colleague, Bhakta Charan Das, wants that Vedanta Resources should not be allowed to do business in the state in view of the Supreme Court?s recent observation about the company.
Even though voices of the Visthapan Virodhi Jan Manch against Tata Steel?s project are getting feeble, the danger of fresh trouble in Kalinga Nagar is still hanging in the air. Possibilities of Maoists taking over the anti-project movement cannot be ruled out.
However, it is not just political parties and industrial houses that will see action this year. Farmers, too, will be seen more often on the roads than on fields this year, as the issue of distribution of water to industrial houses from irrigation projects is still to be resolved.