Orissa’s steel hub cries out for urgent help

Once showcased as the country’s steel hub, the Kalinganagar Industrial Estate in Orissa is now crying out for urgent government intervention for its survival. Most of the steel industries that came up here are starving for the key raw material: iron ore.

Responding to the Orissa government’s call for rapid industrialisation, at least 11 leading industrial houses of the country — including Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless Limited, Visa Steel, Mesco Steel and BRPL Limited — have put up steel industries at Kalinganagar. All of them were assured of a steady supply of iron ore and other facilities.

However, the absence of uninterrupted supply of iron ore and the want of prompt action to the urgent requirements of the industries has left them in the lurch. With most of the industries remaining closed since long, employees engaged in those units look at a stark future.

The state government had formed a three-member inter-ministerial team led by former finance minister Prasanna Acharya to suggest measures for supply of raw material to industries on long term basis. Although the body had submitted its report on July 19, 2013, the state government has not yet pronounced any concrete measures to supply iron ore, bauxite and other minerals to the industries. As a result, most of the industries have stopped production.

Apart from non-availability of raw materials, the adverse market conditions have also led to most of the steel industries either shutting down their units or running the facilities at much less than their actual and installed capacities.

According to reports, as many as 19,169 industrial workers in Kalinganagar have lost their jobs in the last three years. Of the 19,169 industrial workers, 1,76,729 are contractual workers while 1540 are regular employees.

The people who have been seriously affected by the present state of affairs in Kalinganagar are around 5000 families belonging to 20 local villages who had parted with over 8,284 acres of agricultural land for industrialisation. Each land loser was given `1 lakh compensation per acre of land. In some cases, at least one member of each family was given a job in the industry.

According to an estimate, the total iron ore requirement of all the private small and medium steel and sponge iron units in the state is approximately 20 million tonnes per annum.

Although the steel industries are asking the OMC to supply iron ore at affordable prices so as to enable them to compete with other players in the market, the government is sitting over the proposal since 2009.