After 'Make in Odisha', investments slow to take off

After drawing investment intents worth Rs 2.03 lakh crore at the 'Make in Odisha' conclave, Odisha government has set its eyes on speeding the pace of implementation of the projects. Despite being the favoured destination of investors, Odisha has drawn flak for its historically slow conversion rate of investments.
 

But, as the state targets implementation of fresh investment intents of at least Rs 1.5 lakh crore in three years, it has sounded the alert tone to the investors to pull up their socks.

Four months have elapsed since the announcement of investments at the 'Make in Odisha' conclave in December but many of them have not taken the shape of concrete proposals. With corporates still dallying on submitting their proposals, the state government has reached out to them, seeking status of such projects along with the timelines.

Recently, the state industries department has written to Goutam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, T V Narendran, managing director of Tata Steel, A K Jha, chairman and managing director of Coal India arm Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), Shashi Ruia, chairman of Essar Group, Naveen Jindal, chairman of JSPL, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

In a letter to these company bosses, Odisha's industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra has asked for progress made with respect to submission of proposals and implementation with timelines. The information would be vetted by a state level task force chaired by the industries minister to review and expedite the pace of implementation of projects. The state government is committed to dispose the investment proposals within 30 days of submission on the e-Biz portal.

The state government has suggested to the investors to appoint a nodal officer to facilitate better coordination.

At the 'Make in Odisha' conclave, the state's biggest showpiece event, Adani Group had proposed an investment of Rs 12,000 crore on expansion of its Dhamra port, establishment of an LNG terminal and also an edible oil refinery. Tata Steel had announced to expand capacity of its Kalinganagar plant besides committing Rs 3,172 crore on other investments.

Ruia led Essar Group had proposed an investment of Rs 2,500 crore for setting up a steel downstream unit and expansion of its existing pellet plant. Similarly, another steel maker Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) had sought to investment Rs 10,619 crore to ramp up capacity of its Angul steel unit to 6.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa). Public sector firm Steel Authoirty of India Ltd (SAIL) had committed Rs 20,000 crore in Odisha for expanding its Rourkela unit by three mtpa.

AAI had unveiled an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore on the development of Airport Business District (ABD) at the Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar. The planned hub would consist of establishment of upscale and budget hotels, commercial and retail areas along with offices.