UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 30 of 150

Correct — C, Muri – Chhattisgarh. Muri is in Jharkhand, not Chhattisgarh. The Muri works sit in the Ranchi district of Jharkhand, on the Chota Nagpur plateau, and they are an alumina refinery — the stage that converts bauxite into alumina — built to draw on the bauxite of the Lohardaga and Gumla plateau country nearby. The plant was one of the units of the old Indian Aluminium Company (Indal), which Hindalco took control of in June 2000. Chhattisgarh does have a major aluminium centre and that is probably what the examiner expected you to reach for, but it is Korba, the BALCO smelter–power complex, not Muri. The other three pairs are all sound. Alupuram, beside Aluva — the town the question still calls by its old name Alwaye — in Ernakulam district, Kerala, is the site of one of India's earliest aluminium works, placed there for the cheap hydro-electricity of the Western Ghats. Belagavi, the town formerly spelt Belgaum, is in northern Karnataka and is the standard textbook entry for that state's alumina works. And Hirakud is in Sambalpur district, Odisha, where the aluminium smelter and its captive power plant stand beside the great Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi that supplies the electricity. Three correct pairs, one wrong state — the answer is (c).

• (a)Alupuram (Alwaye) – Kerala — Correctly matched, so it cannot be the answer. Alupuram lies next to Aluva (Alwaye) in Ernakulam district, Kerala, and its aluminium works — long run by the Indian Aluminium Company — is one of the oldest in the country, sited to use the hydro-electric power of the Western Ghats rather than to sit on a bauxite field.
• (b)Belagavi – Karnataka — Correctly matched. Belagavi is simply the current official spelling of Belgaum, the district town in northern Karnataka; the renaming does not move the plant to another state, though it is exactly the kind of change that unsettles candidates working from older textbooks.
• (d)Hirakud – Odisha — Correctly matched, and it is the clearest illustration of why aluminium plants sit where they do. Hirakud is in Sambalpur district, Odisha, and the smelter is there because the Hirakud multipurpose project on the Mahanadi supplies the enormous quantity of electricity that smelting demands.

Aluminium is made in two distinct stages, and the two stages obey two different location rules. First, bauxite ore is refined into alumina — a bulky, weight-losing process, so refineries are built close to the bauxite mines. Second, alumina is reduced electrolytically to aluminium metal, which is one of the most electricity-hungry operations in all of industry, so smelters are built wherever power is cheap and abundant, even far from the ore. India's map reflects this exactly: refineries at Muri and Lohardaga in Jharkhand, Belagavi in Karnataka, Damanjodi and Lanjigarh in Odisha, close to bauxite; smelters at Hirakud and Angul in Odisha, Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh, Korba in Chhattisgarh and Jharsuguda in Odisha, each anchored to hydel or captive thermal power.

Two things make this question harder than it looks. First, the four places named are the classic quartet of Indian Aluminium Company (Indal) locations that Indian geography textbooks list together — Alupuram, Belagavi, Muri and Hirakud — so a student who has memorised the list as a list, without the states, has nothing to fall back on. Second, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were both created in November 2000 but on different days — Chhattisgarh on 1 November (out of Madhya Pradesh), Uttaranchal on 9 November, and Jharkhand on 15 November (out of Bihar), and both are mineral-rich plateau states with bauxite and with aluminium plants. Older books therefore place Muri in Bihar and Korba in Madhya Pradesh, which is where most of the confusion in this pair comes from. The discriminator to fix in memory is simple: Muri and Lohardaga are Jharkhand; Korba is Chhattisgarh.

• Aluminium smelting is exceptionally power-intensive, so Indian smelters are tied to cheap power: Hirakud in Odisha to the Hirakud hydel project, Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh to Hindalco's captive Renusagar plant, Korba in Chhattisgarh to BALCO's captive power, and Angul in Odisha to NALCO's.
• Alumina refining follows the ore instead: Muri and Lohardaga in Jharkhand, Belagavi in Karnataka, Damanjodi in Koraput district and Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, both Odisha.
• Muri is in Ranchi district, Jharkhand; the aluminium centre of Chhattisgarh is Korba, home of BALCO.
• Hindalco acquired a controlling stake in the Indian Aluminium Company (Indal) in June 2000, which is why the old Indal plants — including Hirakud in Sambalpur district, Odisha — now appear under the Hindalco name.
• Odisha holds the largest share of India's bauxite resources, chiefly in the Koraput, Kalahandi and Sundargarh belts, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand (Lohardaga, Gumla) and Chhattisgarh.

• Swapping Muri (Jharkhand) with Korba (Chhattisgarh). Both are aluminium names on adjoining mineral plateaus, and pre-2000 textbooks list them under Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, which multiplies the confusion.
• Being thrown by renamed towns: Belagavi is Belgaum, Alwaye is Aluva, Bellary is Ballari. The place has not moved.
• Assuming the aluminium plant must be at the bauxite mine. Refineries follow the ore; smelters follow the power — that single distinction explains almost every location in the industry.

Plant-and-state or company-and-location matching is a standing favourite of both commissions for aluminium, steel, fertiliser and cement. UPSC has run it as a company–location match list (BALCO, HINDALCO, Indal, NALCO against Korba, Renukoot, Hirakud, Koraput in 2007) and, more conceptually, as a 'why is this plant here' question about Renukoot in 2002. UPPSC keeps to the plain pair format and usually asks for the pair that is NOT correctly matched, so read the stem before you start eliminating.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  NALCO's alumina refinery and its aluminium smelter are located respectively at:

  • (a)Lanjigarh and Jharsuguda
  • (b)Damanjodi and Angul
  • (c)Muri and Hirakud
  • (d)Belagavi and Korba

  Answer(b) Damanjodi and Angul — the refinery sits at Damanjodi in Koraput district beside the Panchpatmali bauxite deposit, while the smelter is at Angul, next to its captive thermal power station. Both are in Odisha.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following pairs (Aluminium/alumina plant – State) is NOT correctly matched?

  • (a)Korba – Chhattisgarh
  • (b)Renukoot – Uttar Pradesh
  • (c)Lanjigarh – Jharkhand
  • (d)Angul – Odisha

  Answer(c) Lanjigarh – Jharkhand — Lanjigarh's alumina refinery is in Kalahandi district, Odisha. Jharkhand's alumina locations are Muri and Lohardaga.