Thursday, April 25, 2013

“They must establish consensus before a law is made”

N. A. Ansari, Whole time Director and Executive Director, JSPL Raigarh. talks about JSPL’s R&D and environment initiatives as well as policy issues

B&E: What have the most important outcomes of JSPL’s R&D initiatives so far?
N. A. Ansari (NAA): We use our in-house R&D facility as well as licensed technologies. We ensure that the combination of these two brings out quality products for us. For example, we have manufactured the world’s longest rail, which is 121 meters long and can be coupled to form 484 meters in all. But we are still waiting for the orders to come, because the most important consumer of this technology could only be Indian Railways. We have been trying to convince them for the last 4-5 years that our rail can be laid down quickly, is easy to maintain, lighter in weight, et al, but they have stuck to their MOUs, which they have signed with the other companies. Apart from this, we regularly do research to find out ways to improve our quality, reduce wastage, cut down coke consumption in the blast furnace, increase yield, et al.

B&E: What is your perspective on the logistics and transportation related issues that JSPL faces in particular?
NA: Infrastructure is really in a very bad shape. We receive our imported raw material at Paradip port in Orissa, from where it gets to our Raigarh plant by train. This is very time consuming as our ports are not in a position to handle the cargo quickly and efficiently. We have purchased a 60% stake in an SPV to develop Gopalpur port near Berhampur city in Orissa’s Ganjam district. This will help us immensely once our six million tonne steel plant in Angul starts production.

B&E: Policy issues like land acquisition, environmental clearance, et al are gaining a lot of ground these days. How can they be made more business friendly?
NA: I am not against any regulation. All I want to say is that there needs to be a practical approach to law making. Some of the laws regarding environment conservation are very good, but they are difficult to implement due to lack of technology or some other constraints. So, the attempt should be to establish a consensus before a law is made. Also, the mechanism to resolve the issues & attain clearances should not be so slow and time consuming. If you need to give a red signal to a project, say it in one go and then stick to it. Otherwise, let the work go on. By the time the final decision comes about a project, it may not remain feasible for the producer anymore. So, if we really want to see the sector booming, we need to address these issues on a high priority basis.

B&E: How are you meeting various environment-related norms?
NA: Through our R&D, We are able to manage our fly-ash emission in a very systematic manner, which has brought down the risk to the environment significantly. We are using a lot of our fly ash waste to manufacture bricks. This way, we are not just disposing our waste, but also creating value out of it. We have also planted over 3 million trees in and around our Raigarh plant. This is our way to use natural resources sustainably.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
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