(a) whether the production at Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) has since been normalised;
(b) if so, the loss of production of Aluminium and man hours during the agitation period against the disinvestment of BALCO; and
(c) the steps taken to ensure optimum level of production of Aluminium at BALCO?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF MINES (SHRI JAYSINGRAO GAIKWAD PATIL)
(a) No, Sir. There are 408 pots in the Smelter Plant of BALCO. Out of them only 375 pots have been brought back in to production. The quality of the material produced continues to be of low purity.
(b) The loss of production of Aluminium during agitation period is 18906 Metric Tonnes. The man hours loss during the agitation period is 20,30,568.
(c) Innovative methods of restarting of the pots have been adopted by BALCO management. Steps have been taken to motivate the employees to put forth their best in bringing the plant back to normalcy on war footing basis.