Odisha Cabinet Clears Proposal For Long-Term Linkage Of Bauxite

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a proposal for long-term linkage of bauxite in the state.

Briefing media persons after the meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here in the evening, Chief Secretray Aditya Prasad Padhi said the Cabinet cleared the proposal of the Steel and Mines department for long-term linkage of bauxite in the state.

“It has been decided that out of the total bauxite reserve in the state, 70 per cent would be kept for long-term linkage while the remaining 30 percent would be kept for e-auction,” he added.

It is expected that the decision of the state government for long-term linkage would help the Vedanta Aluminium  get the ore to run its plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

Padhi said the State Cabinet cleared the proposal for setting up of four drinking water projects in Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Jajpur districts. The projects would be funded by the Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC). The proposed project would benefit about 2.34 lakh people of 293 villages of these three districts. The project work would be taken up by M/S NCC Ltd, Hyderabad, at a cost of Rs 551.78 crore. The project would be completed within two years, Padhi informeed.

The Cabinet also approval a proposal to set up two drinking water projects under Rural Water Supply & Sanitation (RWSS) in Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts to provide fluoride-free drinking water to five blocks, which include two blocks in Cuttack district and three blocks in Jagatsinghpur district. The total project cost of the project to be taken up by the Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is estimated at Rs 360 crore. “The project, scheduled to be completed within two years, would benefit around 4.22 lakh people of 474 villages of these five blocks,” he added.

Besides, the State Cabinet also approved the appointment of Jagannath Mohanty and retired Brigadier Laxmi Charan Patnaik as member and chairperson of the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) respectively, the Chief Secretary said