Make in Odisha Conclave 2018: Rs 1.3-trillion investment pledge on Day 1

Pledges from Ambani, Birla, Vedanta, Jindal; Tata Steel ramps up capacity at Kalinganagar plant from 3 to 8 mt

The first day of the ‘Make in Odisha’ investment conclave, a four-day affair, saw business leaders Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Anil Agarwal and Naveen Jindal among those announcing investment intentions worth Rs1.3 trillion.

Other corporate names who were on the dais with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the glittering inaugural plenary included Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, JSW Chief Sajjan Jindal, State Bank of India Chairman Rajnish Kumar, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary,  ITC Managing Director Sanjiv Puri, National Aluminium Chairman Tapan Chand and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Chief Executive Karan Adani.

Anil Agarwal said Vedanta, his metals and mining major, which has already invested Rs500 billion in the state on alumina, aluminium and power entities, would put in another Rs150 billion in the next three years for expansion, mostly in alumina refining. It plans to expand its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh from annual capapcity of a million tonnes to six million tonnes (mt), in phases, despite constraints over raw material (bauxite) supply.

The inaugural event for the first phase, to take the capacity to four mt, was at the conclave itself on Monday. Agarwal said he also hoped the issues surrounding his jinxed Vedanta University project would be resolved soon. After land acquisition for it was struck down by the high court, the company has gone to the Supreme Court. 

He said the company had already spent Rs5 billion on the project and would spend another Rs70 billion. The university is described as being built to accommodate 100,000 students at a time, across courses of study.  

Aditya Birla Group pledged Rs140 billion in Odisha investment over the next two years. “These would be spread across businesses. The chief minister's leadership continues to be a huge draw for us,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman. 

His group, with interests ranging from textiles to telecom and aluminium to cement, has already invested over Rs400 billion in the state, employing around 12,000 people. 

Through ancillarisation, the group says it will generate employment for 25,000. The inaugural ceremony for a textiles unit of the group at Mancheswar on Bhubaneswar's outskirts was done during the conclave.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries announced Rs30-billion in investment here over the next three years, across businesses. “Reliance has already invested over Rs60 billion in Odisha,” noted Ambani, mostly in creating the Jio (telecom) network.

Tata Steel’s inaugural ceremony was also on Monday for capacity ramp-up at its Kalinganagar (Jajpur district) plant from three to eight mt annually. 

Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said with the expansion, Tata Steel’s total investment in Odisha  would exceed Rs1 trillion. Jindal Steel & Power chairman Naveen Jindal said they’d put in another Rs 550 billion to expand their Angul steel plant capacity to 20 mt a year by 2030, from six mt now.

Central government-owned SAIL has pledged Rs410 billion to expand capacity at its integrated Rourkela unit from four to 10 mt annually, in two years. SAIL has already invested Rs140 billion to scale up capacity, from 2 mt to 4.5 mt. Another conglomerate, Adani Group signed a deal with the state government to set up an airstrip near Dhamra, at an estimated cost of Rs5 billion. Proposed on 500 acres, it is scheduled to be operational in 18 months.

ITC and Britannia Industries announced investments in food processing, to scale up existing units. ITC's is Rs5.5 billion; Britannia says it will invest Rs600 million more over the next three to five years.

Dalmia Bharat Group has proposed to add 2.5 mt of annual capacity at each of its cement units at Rajgangpur and Kapilash, near Cuttack, for Rs25 billion.