Yadgir's maiden cement plant gets government nod

The unit is estimated to bring in an investment of Rs 960 crore with a production capacity of two million metric tonnes per annum and a 50-MW coal-based captive power plant. It is expected to generate employment to 700 people.

This will be the first big cement factory in Yadgir district when it materialises. All the three major cement factories Rajashree, Vasavadatta and Zuari are located in Gulbarga district.

The new plant is also expected to provide indirect employment to an unspecified number of people apart from opening up ancillaries and other avenues of the economy in the virtually no-industry district, created one-and-a-half year ago. The approval for the cement and power unit was given at a recent meeting of the State High Level Clearance Committee, according to official sources. The new cement factory will require 350 acres of land which will have to be acquired and allotted by Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) to the company as a Single Unit Complex. The unit is estimated to require 2,100 kilo litres per day (KLPD) of water, out of which 1,210 KLPD will have to be drawn from the Krishna river, subject to the approval of the Water Resources Department.

The company will have to make its own arrangements for the remaining 890 KLPD of water. It is not known whether the company will be allowed to exploit underground sources for this huge requirement. The unit will require 36,750 KVA of power and it has to be supplied by the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company.

Major conditions

One of the major conditions put forth by the government for the company is that it will have to prepare a plan for development of human resources required for the project, train local people and provide employment to the trained local youth.

The firm has also been asked to provide employment to at least one member of the family of each land loser, if the land is acquired through KIADB. It will have to draw a vendor development plan to develop local vendors and procure the required inputs, components and sub-assemblies from them.

The other conditions are: the project proponents will have to adopt rainwater harvesting, waste water recycling and water conservation techniques, besides zero discharge facility. The promoters will have to obtain Consent for Establishment and Consent for Operations from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The clearance for the new cement unit is said to be the result of the Global Investors Meet held by the government in June last year.