Adani group to invest over $7 billion in Odisha

The Gujarat based Adani group plans to invest a sum of Rs57,575 crore in the state of Odisha or approximately $7.25 billion. The investment will be to set up an alumina refinery in the state of Odisha. The chief minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, has always had a business friendly image and had drafted policies and procedures to allow large business houses to explore the mineral potential of Odisha. Incidentally, the promoter of the group Mr. Gautam Adani is ranked by Forbes as the richest man in India on his Adani stake.

The story of the Adani group has been a story of frenetic growth and calibrated expansions into areas that perfectly gel with the national priorities. Today, their business empire spans a wide gamut of assets including airports, ports, renewable power, green hydrogen, FMCG products, cement, copper, energy transmission, gas distribution etc. It straddles the consumer facing businesses as well as the enterprises business and its group market ranks third in India after the Tata group and the Reliance group.

Back to the Adani investment in Odisha! The group will set up a 4-million tonnes per annum (TPA) alumina refinery in closer proximity to the bauxite mines. In addition, it will also set up value added iron ore project. The iron ore project will be a 30 million tonnes per annum (TPA) iron ore value addition project in the state of Odisha. The projects were approved by the High-Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) of the statement government which is headed by none other than the chief minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, an avowed reformist.

The alumina and the iron ore businesses are power intensive businesses and therefore these plants can become a captive market for the massive power franchise of the group. In fact, with their strong renewable energy franchise, the Adani group will be able to generate and produce the greenest alumina anywhere in the world. Their total investment of over $7 billion in the state will be instrumental in creating close to 9,300 direct jobs but it will also open up tens of thousands of ancillary business and indirect job opportunities in Odisha.

Regarding the iron ore project, it will include an iron ore beneficiation plant that produces iron ore concentrate, a slurry pipeline and a filtration and pellet plant to produce filter cake and pellet. The alumina refinery, on the other hand, will be in the vicinity of potential bauxite reserves or operational mines in order to produce smelter grade (metallurgical grade) alumina. While the iron ore beneficiation plant will be located in Deojhar in Keonjhar district, the pellet plant will be located in Dhamra in the Bhadrak district. The slurry pipeline will run along the utility corridor of the roads between Deojhar and Dhamra.

Odisha has long been the mainstay for India’s mineral reserves. It is estimated that Odisha, holds more than 50% of India’s bauxite and iron ore reserves. The state government of Odisha has already articulated its Vision 2030: Development of Downstream Units in Metal Sector. The idea of this policy paper is to strengthen the development and overall socio-economic status of the state. In a sense, the recent project announcements made by the Adani Group are aligned with the larger goal that the state of Odisha is pursuing.