Which one of the following is NOT correctly matched ?
Aluminium Plants – Location

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Madras Aluminium Company Limited (MALCO) – Chennai. MALCO's works are at METTUR in Salem district, Tamil Nadu — not at Chennai. The company carried the old name of the city in its title, which is exactly the hook the examiner is fishing with, but the plant itself sits some 350 km inland beside the Mettur Dam on the Kaveri. That siting is not an accident: aluminium smelting is one of the most electricity-hungry industrial processes there is, and Mettur offered cheap hydel power from the dam plus bauxite hauled from the nearby Yercaud hills in Salem district and the Kolli Hills in Namakkal district. Mettur is in fact known as the aluminium city of Tamil Nadu. The other three pairs are all correct, which is what leaves (c) standing: BALCO's smelter-and-power complex is at Korba in Chhattisgarh; the former Indian Aluminium Company (Indal) smelter is at Hirakud in Odisha, drawing on the Hirakud hydel project; and HINDALCO's original works are at Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh, run off the captive Renusagar power plant.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Correctly matched, so it cannot be the answer. BALCO's integrated smelter and captive power complex is at Korba in Chhattisgarh, which is the state's aluminium centre.  (b) Correctly matched. Hirakud in Sambalpur district, Odisha, is one of the four classic Indal locations, alongside Alupuram in Kerala, Belagavi in Karnataka and Muri in Jharkhand. Hindalco acquired a controlling stake in Indal in June 2000.  (d) Correctly matched, and the one pair a UPPSC candidate should never get wrong — Renukoot is in Uttar Pradesh, and the plant is powered by the company's own Renusagar station.

Concept: The aluminium industry splits into two stages that locate for opposite reasons. Alumina REFINING follows the ore, because bauxite is bulky and loses most of its weight in processing — hence refineries at Muri and Lohardaga in Jharkhand, Belagavi in Karnataka, and Damanjodi and Lanjigarh in Odisha. Aluminium SMELTING follows cheap electricity, because reducing alumina to metal consumes enormous quantities of power — hence smelters at Hirakud beside the Mahanadi hydel project, Renukoot beside Renusagar, Korba on BALCO's captive coal-fired plant, and Mettur beside the Mettur Dam.

State PCS 2022 Q14 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q14 — Geography PYQ with Answer