Bhubaneswar, Jan 04 (UNI) Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra

Pradhan today proposed the Union Minister for Coal Prahalad Joshi to increase the

capacity of Nalco’s Aluminium Smelter Plant in Angul from 0.46 MTPA to 1 MTPA.

In a letter to the Union Coal Minister, Mr.Pradhan said the Rs.22,000 crore brown field

expansion project of NALCO which included construction of a 1400 MW feeder Captive

Power Plant (CPP) is presently at land acquisition stage.

Mr Pradhan also proposed the commissioning of the CPP for the expansion project .

He said NALCO’s bauxite production capacity will increase from 7.3 MTPA to 10.05

MTPA after operationalization of the Potang mines.

Out of this up to 3.1 MTPA consists of Alumina which has potential to be produced

into 1.5 MTPA of Aluminium.

Mr.Pradhan said Aluminium smelting is a highly power intensive process and the

feasibility of this brown field expansion project is dependent on a steady supply of

affordable coal to the 1400 MW feeder CPP for uninterrupted bulk generation of power.

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