Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday met industrialists in Mumbai and asked them to partner in the state’s growth.

The CM met chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited Anil Agarwal, director of Jio Platform Limited and Reliance New Solar Energy Limited Anant Ambani, chairman and managing director of JSW Group Sajjan Jindal, and chairman of Aditya Birla Group Kumar Mangalam Birla.

Majhi also met RBI governor Shaktikanta Das and discussed growth prospects in Odisha. While all the big industry houses assured their support, the Vedanta group announced another investment of ₹1 lakh crore in Odisha, bringing its total investment in the state to ₹2 lakh crore.

The company said: “Vedanta has been the partner of Odisha for the last two decades with investment of more than ₹1 lakh crore, creating more than 1 lakh jobs in the state. Vedanta has acquired Sijimali mines through auctions, which is one of the largest deposits of bauxite.”

Announcing a new investment of ₹1 lakh crore, the Vedanta group said: “This investment will be directed towards establishing a 6 million tonnes per annum alumina refinery and a 3 million tonnes aluminium plant, focused on producing green aluminium powered by renewable energy....”

Vedanta said it would be the largest investment ever made in Odisha, creating 2 lakh jobs and opportunities for thousands of MSMEs. However, it won’t be easy for Vedanta to do the mining in Sijimali as locals oppose mining.

Winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for 2017, Prafulla Samantara told The Telegraph: “The auction of Sijimali mines in 2023 was illegal itself. The government machinery managed to obtain gram sabha’s consent fraudulently. The local people in Raygada are opposed to the mining of Sijimali bauxite mining as it would lead to environmental degradation and loss of livelihood....Cases have been framed against a number of people under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act....”