Chhattisgarh Government Revives Aluminium Park Project in Korba

The Chhattisgarh government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has taken steps to revive an aluminum park project initially proposed in 2021 to boost small-scale industries in Korba, located approximately 250 kilometers away from the state capital.

Under the plan, the state government had previously partnered with Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (BALCO), a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited, to provide raw aluminum at subsidized rates to small-scale industries. BALCO, in which the Indian government holds a 49 percent stake, currently has the capacity to produce 570,000 tonnes of aluminum, with plans to increase it to 1 million tonnes per annum since Vedanta Limited took control with a 51 percent stake in 2001.

The proposed aluminum park project, requiring approximately 140 hectares of land, was initially shelved but gained momentum when the BJP government, led by Raman Singh, revisited it in 2015. Land was identified near the BALCO township in Rukhbahari village, and efforts were made to secure consent from villagers through a gram sabha. However, the project was stalled once again.

Now, the newly-elected legislator from Korba, Lakhanlal Dewangan, has spearheaded efforts to revive the project. The government has allocated an initial provision of Rs 5 crore in the budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024-25 to address the long-standing demand for the Aluminum Park in Korba.

Dewangan emphasized that the project's revival will not only lead to the local production of aluminum products but also attract significant investment to Korba, which is an industrial hub in Chhattisgarh. The Aluminum Park is expected to generate interest among both local and external industrialists, prompting them to establish manufacturing plants in the region.

BS