Indian alumina project faces further delay

Work at Utkal Alumina's $1 billion project in east India has been delayed by another six months as the government has yet to hand over a piece of land because of protests by its owners, officials and industry sources said on Thursday.
An industry source said the Orissa state government had allotted 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of land to Utkal Alumina International Ltd, in which Indian Aluminium Company has a 55 percent stake while Canada's Alcan Inc, the world's largest aluminium maker by sales, holds the rest.
Utkal had already paid the state government for the land in Orissa state where the company plans a refinery to produce 1.5 million tonnes of alumina a year in the first phase, doubling capacity later, the source said.