Land disputes cleared by Nellore district admin

Nellore: Even though legal issues related to the land acquisition have been resolved, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) is still delaying construction of the aluminium alloy plant in association with NALCO at Bodduvaripalem close to Nellore city in a 110-acre land. The defence organisation has planned to invest Rs 2,500-Rs 3,000 crore in the project.

Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) is a central government enterprise set up in 1976 in Hyderabad and it has been developing alloys and taking the lead position in the indigenisation of critical technologies and products to support various programmes of national importance. The greenfield plant was proposed in 2017 but remained a non-starter due to land-related disputes.

A senior official from the district said all land disputes have been resolved and a compound wall was also constructed by the company for land earmarked for the production unit.

He said they have identified an alternative land if the pending dispute related to a small extent of land is not solved.

The land earmarked for the production unit is clean land and there is no need for even levelling it. The district administration is also ready to provide additional lands if the Midhani comes forward to set up its unit in the proposed site.

They transferred lands to UtkarshaAlluminum Dhatu Nigam Limited, the joint venture of Midhani and NALCO.

Then Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu also supported the establishment of the industry in the district and the proposed unit at Nellore will be the first defence manufacturing facility outside Hyderabad.

The foundation laying ceremony was planned for August 2019 and was postponed due to the sudden death of former Union Minister Arun Jaitley.

Midhani contacted the state government during the first quarter of 2017 for land allotment and the district administration had initially allocated 110 acres of land for Midhani and signed a Memorandum of Understanding for setting up the joint venture with NALCO and the company failed to float the unit due to land disputes raised by the farmers.

The State government earlier distributed some lands to the local farmers four decades ago under the CJFS scheme and they hadn't utilised them for agriculture purposes till 2010-12.

So, the government reassigned them in 2013 reducing the extent from one acre to 60 cents each who were having land Pattas as they were not using the lands for livelihood activity.

Revenue authorities have offered Rs 10 lakh to the lands in 2013 though the market value was at Rs 4 lakh per acre for cultivable lands.

But the farmers expected more value and started legal litigations for additional money approaching the courts. Finally, the Utkarsha Dhatu Nigam, which is part of Midhani and NALCO, came forward to start the unit and still the project is getting delayed.