Vedanta Aluminium will invest to complete its aluminium smelter and power plants

Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) will invest about INR100bn ($2.2bn) to complete its aluminium smelter and power plants at Jharsuguda.

The company has so far invested around Rs 40,000-crore in its Lanjigarh and Jharsuguda projects in Orissa. It has set up a greenfield alumina refinery with a capacity of 1Mt/y at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi.

VAL also plans to set up an Aluminium Park in Jharsuguda that will co-locate multiple downstream industries. The company plans to increase smelting capacity at its Jharsuguda plant to 1.75Mt from its current 500kt by 2013-14.

Jharsuguda is also the site of Sterlite Energy’s 2400MW power plant, a group company of Vedanta Resources. It has achieved 2415MW in the two power plants at Jharsuguda. It hopes to achieve 3615MW by 2012.

Vedanta has come to the rescue of power-starved Orissa, which is currently facing an acute power shortage due to scarce rainfall and ‘almost dried-up’ reservoirs.