Mehta told newspersons that a high-level committee of secretaries from the State returned to Gandhinagar from the USA on Sunday night after finalising agreement of the joint venture project with three US companies -- Reynol, Raytheon and AG-Jeefries. The plant will be producing 7.5 lakh tonnes of alumina from unused huge deposits of bauxite in the border district. He said in the first of its kind project on the west coast, State undertakings like Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) and Gujarat Alkalis would have equity shares of 6 per cent each while the share of the American companies would be 39 per cent. He said the exact site of the plant would be decided by experts on the coastal land between Mandvi and Mundra in southern Kutch.

The former chief minister said the project, four times bigger than the district's first mega industrial project of Sanghi, would provide direct employment to 12,000 people and indirect employment to many more. About 5,000 trucks would transport raw materials from the mines to the factory site daily and bauxite would be supplied by local small entrepreuners who would lease out small areas varying between two to ten hectares.

Mehta said since water was the main problem here, the State government had asked the American companies to initially install 4.5 million gallons capacity desalination plant. He said the companies had also agreed to the State's demand of supplying 1 million gallons of water per day.

He informed that bauxite would be cut into small pieces to feed more and more units which would be set up here for further employment. He said the American partners have also agreed to set up a 45 MW power plant to meet the plant's requirement and also supply excess power for other uses.He said that after a pre-feasibility report, a detailed feasibility report would be prepared. The American companies would bear the whole cost of Rs 6 crore for the report.

Expressing State government's firm commitment to speedy industrilisation of the border district which had enormous mineral and other wealth, Mehta said a number of a big industrial houses in the country were waiting for the final verdict of the Sanghi case.

Mehta, who paid his maiden visit to the 5,000-year-old Indus civilisation site at Dholavira on Sunday said that the government had drawn up a crash programme to create basic infrastructures there. These, he said, included electrification of the site by May 5 and laying of 1,200-km water pipeline from a good underground source to the mound by May 15. He said the government also planned to build four main approach roads to the site linking them to highways. He said the roads included Rapar-Chitrod-Lodarani route, Bhuj-Khavra-Kunaria route, Adesar-Fatehgadh route and Bhachau- Chaubari route.