Odisha approves Rs 34,197 cr investment proposals including Rs 28,700 cr by Haldia Petrochemicals

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government on Tuesday approved investment proposals worth Rs 34,197 crore including Rs 28,700 crore investment by Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), officials said. The investment proposals were approved at the High-Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) headed by Naveen Patnaik. The investment proposals which got the state government’s nod include Haldia Petrochemicals (Rs 28,700 crore), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Rs 1,970.52 crore), Rungta Rungta Mines Limited’s two proposals (Rs 1,677.98 crore and Rs 1,848 crore). Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd during the Make in Odisha Conclave- 2018 had proposed to set up an integrated refinery with aromatics complex for production of Paraxylene and Purified Terepthalic Acid (PTA) at a total investment of Rs 28,700 crore near Subarnarekha Port in Balasore district. The production capacity for Paraxylene will be 1.6 million metric tonne per annum and for PTA will be 2.5 MMTPA [caption id=“attachment_5121731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Odisha chief miniater Naveen Patnaik. Twitter/@Naveen_Odisha[/caption] The investment proposal was submitted by the West Bengal-based company on 1 March. The land requirement for the project is 2000 acres which will be recommended for allotment post assessment by the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (IPICOL). The land for the project has been identified in the vicinity of the upcoming Subarnarekha Port, a senior official said. The foundation stone of the proposed port at Subarnareklha is being built by Tata Steel in association with the state government. The port is expected to be built at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore and will create employment opportunities for 12,000 people. The first phase of the Haldia Petrochemicals project approved on Tuesday is expected to be operationalised within five years of allotment of land, the official said. PTA, one of the products of this project can be used to set up downstream units in polyester fibers and polyethyl terephthalate (PET). These products are used by several medium and small scale enterprises to make garments, food packaging applications and others. Since the total polyester chain starting from spinning to garment making is a labour-intensive process, it is estimated that direct and indirect employment generation potential of the project is about one lakh people, they said. Apart from Haldia Petrochemicals, the HLCA also approved the proposal of Indian Oil Corporation Limited to set up a polyester products manufacturing unit of 300 KTPA capacity at the textiles park coming up at Bhadrak district at an investment of Rs 1,970.52 crore. The project will create employment opportunities for 209 people and is expected to be implemented within four years of land allotment. The HLCA also approved two proposals of Rungta Mines Limited. The first proposal was for the expansion of its sponge iron plant to 0.53 MTPA integrated steel plant at Karakolha in Keonjhar district. The expansion would entail investment of Rs 1,677.98 crore and will create about 1,100 employment opportunities. The second proposal by the company was for setting up an integrated steel plant of 0.53 MTPA capacity at Karakhendra in Keonjhar district at an investment of Rs 1,848.69 crore. The employment potential for this project is 943.