Tata Steel has closed its 50,000 tonnes per annum ferroalloys plant at Bamnipal in Keonjhar district of Odisha on account of unavailability of raw material. The raw material crisis is precipitated by closure of the company’s Sukinda chrome ore mines, where the work has been suspended since 17th May, this year, because of non-renewal of lease.
The Suspension of operation at Sukinda and Bamnipal has impacted livelihood of more than 6,000 persons with loss of revenue to the government to the tune of Rs 300 crores per annum.
Even as Tata Steel’s application for renewal of Sukinda lease, which expired in 2013, is pending before the state government, the Odisha High Court has restrained the government from taking any decision on the matter till disposal of petitions challenging the company’s need to retain the full lease area.
Tata Steel, the flagship company of the Tata group is the first integrated steel plant in Asia and is now the world’s second most geographically diversified steel producer and a Fortune 500 Company.
