• Bhubaneswar: The Odiaha government Monday cleared 5 investment proposals in chemicals & petro- chemicals and metal down stream industries sectors worth Rs. 2, 04,069 crore.
  • This is the highest worth proposals the State High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA), which meet under the chairmanship of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, cleared so far. The industries principal secretary Sanjeev Chopra outlined the project proposals for consideration. These proposals will create employment opportunities for 27,645 people.
  • The 20th HLCA approved the proposal of M/s Jindal (India) Limited to set up a Cold Rolling Complex of 0.50 MTPA and Steel Processing Plant at Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur district with a total investment of Rs. 1,676 crores, providing employment to about 1,300 people.Another proposal by M/s Talcher Fertilizer Ltd to set up a Coal based Urea Fertilizer complex of capacity 1.99 MMTPA at Talcher in Angul with investment of Rs. 14,732 Crores, employing around 550 people was also approved.In a major breakthrough in the Petrochemical sector, the HLCA gave its nod to two giants in this sector for setting up their projects at Odisha. The first one was by M/s Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) to set up a Hydrocarbon processing complex comprising of light crude oil refinery, Aromatics complex and Ethylene Cracker Complex near the proposed Subarnarekha port in Balasore with a total investment of Rs. 78,225.00 Crores, providing job opportunities for around 10,000 people. The M/s Indian Oil Corporation Limited proposed to expand its existing Refinery unit from 15 MMTPA to 25 MMTPA, and setting up of a Petrochemical complex comprising a Dual Feed Cracker, Naphtha cracker and Petcoke Gasification Plant at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur with a total investment of Rs.1,00,300 Crores, employing around 12,595 people. The project will ensure the availability of building block feedstock to ancillary and downstream units in the Chemical and Petrochemical sector.Another proposal by IOCL, to set up 1.2 MMTPA capacity of PX-PTA (Purified Terephthalic Acid complex) with an investment of Rs 9,136 Crore in its existing Paradip refinery, employing around 3,200 people, has also been approved in the meeting.These would not only make the state a Petrochemical hub, propelling growth of downstream petrochemical units in state, but also make Odisha, the Energy Gateway of the East. Both the projects being port-based would also facilitate the export and import trading. Odisha all set to be the Petrochemical hub of East.