Shiva Shankar Minerals Limited has successfully approached the government for permission to construct a 3.5Mta cement plant on 1500 acres of land at Burigpally and Ghanapur, Chincholi Taluk.

The huge cement factory and a 50MW captive power generation unit require an investment of INR22.5bn (US$405.372m). Officials added the completed factory will require 6Ml of water a day — which will have to be drawn from the Mullamari River. In addition, the plant will require 89,500kVA of power from the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company until its own captive generation unit becomes operational.

The proposal was made at the Global Investors Meet (GIM) and accepted by the government after receiving approval from the State High Level Clearance Committee. Phase 1 alone will require an estimated workforce of 1050 staff.

The main condition of granting permission by the government is that the company will have to train local people and provide employment to them as recommended by the Sarojini Mahishi Committee. Other conditions include providing employment to one person of each family losing the land, adopting rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling and water conservation techniques besides creating zero discharge facility.

Shiva Shankar Minerals is also asked to prepare a vendor development plan to develop local vendors and to procure required inputs and components. It is similarly advised to take up social infrastructure development projects in the vicinity of the proposed project.