Due to the pot debacle, the company suffered a production loss of 35,000 tonnes of primary metal during the last five months of this fiscal, he said.

Patnaik told reporters that the responsibility for the failure had been fixed and the erring officials and employees will be taken to task very soon.

After receiving the CG Krishnadas Nair Committee report, "We had asked it to fix responsibility for the pot failure." The committee's second report has been received on September 9 and `we are examining the same,' he added.

Union mines department joint secretary Aruna Bagchi quoting the report said lack of proper maintenance and absence of back-up facilities resulted in the pots becoming inoperational.

Nalcochairman-cum-managing director SN Johri said that out of 480 pots 255 had been stabilised and by November a total of 370 pots would be restored. He said that for the last 15 days, Nalco was adding one pot every day to its potline. The number of operative pots had come down to 237 at one point of time because of the failure.

Johri said that despite the setback, Nalco will continue as a profit-making organisation. He also assured that the company's expansion programmes will not be affected because of this debacle. On Nalco's Rs 32 crore outstanding with Pennar Aluminium company, he said, `we don't consider it a bad debt.'

Strip casting plant goes on stream

Nalco on Sunday put into operation its 26,000-tonne strip casting facility at its smelter complex in Angul, Orissa. The plant, which was switched on by steel & mines minister Naveen Patnaik, has been set up with the technological support from Fata Engineering, Italy, at a cost of Rs 76.43 crore. The entire project cost has been met by Nalco fromits internal resources. The cast strips produced in the plant will form the feedstock for the rolling mills which produce sheets and foils.