Cuttack, Nov. 27: Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys (IMFA), a leading manufacturer of ferro alloys, plans to go in for diversification into alumina-aluminium under a Rs 8,000-crore project in Orissa over a six-year period from 2008.

The project envisages an alumina refinery with capacity of 1mt per annum at Therubali and a .25MT per annum capacity aluminium smelter near Choudwar along with captive power and downstream park for further value added products. “A lot of ground work has already been done and we are waiting for the green signal from the government,” said Subhrakant Panda, the IMFA managing director.

The plants would be set up in two phases. While phase-I would spread over a period of three years (2008-11), phase-II would be spread over two years between 2012 and 2014. Plans are underway to start work for the two facilities in 2008.

Also, the foundation stone of a 30MW power project was laid at Choudwar yesterday by state energy minister Surya Narayan Patro on the occasion of its 42nd foundation day. IMFA currently has 108MW captive unit at Choudwar. Captive plants of 360MW capacity are on the anvil. They would be set up in two phases. Work for setting up a 120MW coal-based power plant is already underway. “We have tied up the equity to put up the coal-based plant at Choudwar. The land acquisition process for the block has been started,” the IMFA managing director revealed.

“IMFA has committed investments of about Rs 750 crore over the next two years to expand capacity and build power plants, which would give the company a further edge,” Panda said.The IMFA Group posted its highest ever turnover of Rs 593.53 crore, while producing 1,30,563 tonnes of ferro-chrome in 2006-07. The company had made a turnaround in 2002-03 with production of 1,00,368 tonnes of ferro-chrome, the highest ever by an Indian company in a single year.