BHUBANESWAR: Aluminium major NALCO is contemplating moving a review petition in the Supreme Court for reconsideration of the decision to cancel allotment of a coal block to the Navaratna PSU.

“As Utkal-E coal block is among the 214 blocks deallocated by the Supreme Court recently, we have asked our legal experts to examine the apex court verdict,” Nalco’s Chairman and Managing Director Ansuman Das said here last night.

Nalco almost met the criteria on which the Supreme Court allowed four coal blocks to operate, Das told reporters, adding that after obtaining legal opinion on the matter, the company is likely to file a review petition.

Claiming that Nalco has made considerable progress in developing the coal block and has 60-70 per cent land acquisition for the project, he said the company would explain as to why coal block development was delayed.

Maintaining that Nalco was a public sector company, Das said the aluminium major had not entered into any joint venture with any private company. Nalco had so far invested about Rs 100 crore for development of the coal block, he said.

Besides exploring overseas sources of coal from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Qatar, Nalco would also approach the Centre to provide coal linkage to its power project till coal block allotment was settled, he said.

On the company’s performance, Das said Nalco posted a net profit of Rs 642 crore during 2013-14 compared to Rs 593 crore achieved in the previous fiscal, registering a jump of 8 per cent.

The company achieved highest ever exports at Rs 3,719 crore during the year as against earlier highest of Rs 3,410 crore during the previous year, showing an increase of nine per cent, the Nalco CMD said.

Similarly, the company generated revenue of Rs 46.81 crore during the year from renewable energy against Rs 2.64 crore revenue earned in previous year, he said.

The company sold highest ever quantity of 13.43 lakh mt of chemicals in 2013-14 as compared to 9.85 lakh mt sold in 2012-13, Das said.

Stating that the company is currently embarking upon an ambitious growth plan, he said it involved a substantial investment in next 3 to 4 years, not only in aluminium sector, but also in energy sector.

This would give a significant boost to NALCO’s productivity and profitability, Das said, adding that a lot would depend on availability of coal.

Continuing with its self-propelled growth, the company completed the upgradation of 4th Stream of Alumina Refinery leading to capacity increase from 21 lakh TPY to 22.75 lakh TPY and that of Bauxite Mines from 6.3 Million TPY to 6.825 Million TPY at an estimated project cost of Rs 400 crore approximately, he said.

As part of its green initiatives, Nalco also commissioned 47.6 MW Wind Power Project II at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan at an investment of Rs 283 crore, Das said.

The first Wind Power Plant of 50.4 MW in Andhra Pradesh was commissioned in 2012-13. About 150 million units of electricity was generated from these two plants, in 2013-14, he said.

In another step to harness alternative energy sources, the company had commissioned rooftop solar system at Corporate Office building (160 kwp) and installed rooftop solar system in township buildings (100 kwp) at Bhubaneswar, he said.

On new ventures, Das said that while efforts were on to make profit and maintain a successful track record as a Navratna in the aluminium sector, NALCO was now looking beyond its core operations to achieve a new level of corporate distinction.

Listing some of these initiatives, the CMD said NALCO had been pursuing to set up 1 MTPA alumina refinery in Kutch district of Gujarat based on supply of bauxite from GMDC’s mines, for which Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the project has already been prepared. The project was likely to be taken up in JV, for which GMDC had been approached, he said.

A Smelter & Power complex envisaged to come up at Sundargarh, Odisha had also received clearance of the state government. To make it viable, the company was trying for coal block allocation, Dasi said.

The company plans to set up a 2 Lakh TPA caustic soda plant at Dahej in Gujarat at an estimated investment of Rs 950 crore in JV with GACL for which the Detailed Project Report (DPR) was under review, said Das.

The company had plans to set up aluminium and aluminium alloy conductors for which the Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) had been made, he said, adding that Odisha government had made in-principle allocation of 30 acres of land in the Angul aluminium park.

The company is exploring the opportunity to set up a Greenfield aluminium smelter in a country where energy would be available at a competitive price to make the project viable, Das said.

He added that as of now, 5 countries have been short listed considering various factors like shipping distance from India, availability of required quantum of energy and price viability, geo-political scenario and availability of infrastructure.

The company was planning to set up a 14 MW wind power project in mined out area of its bauxite mines in Damanjodi. Detailed Feasibility Report (DFR) has been prepared, he said adding it also plans to set up 100MW wind power project at a suitable location in India. Selection of wind power developer is underway.

The CMD said Nalco had a plan to set up a solar power plant of appropriate capacity at a suitable location in the country to meet its Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO).

The company was also undertaking feasibility study to establish ground mounted and rooftop solar power project at NALCO Research & Technology Centre (NRTC) at Bhubaneswar as well as at Smleter and Township at Angul.