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Report by OD bureau; Keonjhar: In a major initiative for empowerment of local community and make the youth employable, Essar Steel today started an Industrial Training Centre relfecting the basic tanet of the corporate philosohpy of growing business with the local area development.
The Essar Industrial Training Centre (ITC) at Telkoi in the district of Keonjhar was inaugurated by the local MLA Er Premananda Nayak.
Keonjhar occupies a central place in Essar Steel’s operation plans in Odisha as the company is in advance stages of completing a 12 MTPA beneficiation plant at Dabuna, 35 kms from th district HQ from where beneficiated iron fines will be transported through a 252 km long pipeline to Paradeep for Palettisation plant. The company has already commissioned first phase of 6 MTPA of pallet plant and another six MTPA capacity will be commissioned next year. The entire project for value creation from iron fines from the local miners is being created at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.
Inagurating the Essar ITC, where the first course for electrical trade will start from the current academic session, Mr Nayak said: ”Essar’s effort is praiseworthy. It will create empoloyment opportunities for locals.We will render all possible helpto to allot land for them to have their own campus. And looking at the need for the helping hand for technocrats, I think institutes like this will be of immense help to locals”.
Starting a course with two batches for a total of 42 students, the Centre will soon start technical trainging in other trades for employment oriented courses for the local youth which will help them get increased opportunity for skilled category of work and in effect raise their living stadards and develop the local economy.
Essar Steel had signed an MoU with the State Government in July 2011 to set up an ITC. Within an year of signing this MOU, ITC is set to become operational. In the current academic year, Electrician trade course will be started and subsequently all other trades shall be started.
Mr Ramesh Mohanty, Vice President, Essar Steel India said, ” we remain to committed to the State of Orissa. Not only we will invest further in the State but also will work twoards the betterment of the community in and around our plant site. We have identified there areas that include education, health care and developing self help groups”.
Essar’s corporate philosophy of social responsibilities includes empowerment of local youth, development of the local area and local economy as part of underlying principle of sharing the fruits of the growth with the pepole in the region where it is doing business.
Elaborating, Head of CSR of Essar Foundation, Mr Deepak Arora said that” we are taking such skill-building as well as skill-enhancing initiative to make the locals employable and have set up several such institutes in our other project areas. In fact some of them also found job in our company too”. We are always committed towards the peripheral development of the adjacent areas of our project and the setting up of this ITC will certainly add a feather to it’s cap of CSR activities, he added.
To start with the ITC will commence the training in a temporary building, but will soon take it to a fullfledged dedicated premises once the state government allocates the land for the purpose. Arrangements are also being made for the hostel facilities for the students to the courses. To manage the ITC from this current academic year, all necessary arrangements have been made and so far -- no of students have also got admitted. Faculties have also joined the ITC.
The eager awaited ITC was inagurated in the presence of local representatives of the Telkoi block and the local media persons, whose support, the company officials said is must for the success of the intiative for the local area development. .
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