Extremist threat may hit Bokajan cement factory expansion

Bokajan, July 16 (UNI) The Rs 110 crore ambitious expansion plan of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) plant at Bokajan in Karbi Anglong has come a cropper in the wake of extremist threats.

A senior official of the CCI plant told UNI on condition of anonymity that some companies like Voltaic Engineering and Mark, which had already done surveys for the expansion work, were now reluctant to go ahead with the project due to the persistent threats from insurgents.

Sanctioned by the Centre in March last, the mega expansion plan for the Bokajan unit, the most profit-making plant of the CCI in the country, will be used to double production from 600 to 1,200 mt a day.

The plan included setting up of two grinding units at Lakhimpur and Silchar, besides a pollution control device and a modified crane.

The factory in Bokajan subdivision of Karbi Anglong was commissioned in 1977. Former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed laid its foundation in 1971.

As many as seven sick units of the CCI were shut down in 2005, but the Bokajan unit had been consistently posting profit. In the past 30 years, it has accumulated Rs 75 crore in profits.

The other two profit-making units of the CCI are at Rajbon in Himachal Pradesh and Tandur in Andhra Pradesh.

The expansion programme had taken off as the authorities of the CCI were preparing to lay the foundation for the grinding unit at Silchar.

But recent threats from extremists, particularly the Karbi Anglong-based KLNLF, known to have ties with ULFA, had prompted the authorities to go slow.

On Sunday night, suspected KLNLF militants had abducted the CCI mine manager and ten other officials from the staff colony.

The mine manager, K N Jha, died due to a heart attack minutes after he was kidnapped. The other officials were released by the militants eight km from the limestone quarry at Sonapahar in Dillai.

''This incident has escalated the fear among the officials. If the contractors and workers refuse to work in the quarry, I am afraid the plant will have to be shut down, '' the official said.

The plant today remained closed expressing solidarity to the deceased mine manager.

Officials and contractors of the CCI had been getting extortion threats from extremists.

Officials of the police department and administration had met two months back to review the security of the plant employees and mull measures to enhance them.

A BSF camp was set up around five km from the quarry to ensure security to the workers, but the hilly terrain had always given an edge to the extremists.

UNI