Cuttack, June 22: As the Odisha government's disinvestment plan for Kalinga Iron Works Limited (KIWL) has been hanging fire for sometime now, the pioneering pig iron plant in the state, a brainchild of Biju Patnaik, faces an uncertain fate.

Set up on 570 acres at Barbil in Keonjhar in 1959, KIWL was taken over by the Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha (Idcol) in 1963. Subsequently, it was declared as a state-run subsidiary company of Idcol from 2002-03, while its installed per annum pig iron producing capacity was increased from 30,000 metric tonnes to 1.8 lakh metric tonnes after modernisation.

Official sources said the state government decided to hand over KIWL to the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) in September 2010 after it had incurred losses from 2008-09. "All efforts were taken to continue production since 2011 to keep KIWL in operation till disinvestment but operational losses led to shutdown of the plant for nine months during 2012-13 and eight months during 2013-14. And now, the plant has been shut down for an indefinite period since February 28," a state industries department official said.

On March 13, BJP MLA Dilip Ray had raised the KIWL issue in the Assembly. Replying to Ray's written question, industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the state government was taking steps to hand over KIWL to SAIL. "But nothing concrete has materialised till date," the industries department official conceded.

The Kalinga Iron Works has 700 regular employees and 409 regular contract workers with the Hind Mazdoor Sabha-backed Kalinga Iron Works Officers' Forum, Kalinga Iron Works Employees' Union and Kalinga Industrial & Mining Mazdoor Union.

"Under the present circumstances, the Odisha government should start renegotiation with SAIL or with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited or the National Minerals Development Corporation for takeover of KIWL to install a full-fledged steel plant," said Rajendra Prasad Singh, state president of the sabha.

In another development, the Kalinga Iron Works Banchay Abhiyan Mancha has also urged Naveen Patnaik to take up the handover issue of KIWL to SAIL with the central government.

With 192.81 hectares of iron and manganese ore mines, KIWL at Barbil is close to Bolani mines of SAIL.