Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurates two manufacturing units, lays foundation of 13 others

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday inaugurated two new manufacturing units and laid the foundation stones for 13 plants in the state, totalling an investment of Rs 2,901.20 crore. The units, which were inaugurated by Patnaik through video-conferencing, include Grasim Industries Ltd’s 33,000 mtpa caustic soda facility in Ganjam district, built at an investment of Rs 110 crore, and Jyoti Solar Solution’s Rs 57.17-crore solar power plant in Bolangir district. [caption id=“attachment_4276171” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Twitter@Naveen_Odisha[/caption] The chief minister laid the foundation stones of OCL Ltd’s Rs 1994.98-crore cement plant in Sundergarh district, Hindustan Urban Infrastructure’s Rs 389-crore wire drawing of aluminium insulated wires and cable manufacturing unit in Khurda district, IFFCO’s private railway siding (Rs 63.55 crore) and Jajpur Cement plant (Rs 63.5 crore), among others. “Odisha is fast emerging as the ‘Manufacturing Hub of Eastern India’ and we are working towards developing the state into a ‘Manufacturing Hub of South Asia’,” Patnaik said. The new units will provide employment for more than 3,000 people in the state, he said. These projects demonstrate implementation of Odisha’s vision to broad-base industrial development beyond the mineral-based industries, Industries Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said, adding, they are in diverse sectors like food processing, cement and downstream industries in metals. A total of 49 manufacturing units have either been inaugurated or started construction, as a direct result of the investment promotion efforts of the state government since November 2017, an official said.