Centre gives nod to plastic park in Odisha

The Centre has given its final nod to the plastic park project near Paradeep, close to the site of the oil refinery and petrochemicals complex proposed by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).

"A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed by IOCL and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco). IOCL will hold 74 per cent stake with Idco owning the rest 26 per cent. The park will come up at Siju in Jagatsinghpur district on an area of 200 acres," said an industry department source.

The total cost of the project is yet to be finalised.

Being developed under the 'Plastic Park Scheme' of department of chemicals and petrochemicals, government of India, the park will have a central grant component of Rs 40.20 crore in its overall investment.

The site for the park is within the processing area of the upcoming petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR) hub at Paradeep. The site would enable the plastic units to have easy feedstock sourcing from the IOCL refinery besides offering other advantages like proximity to Paradeep and Dhamra ports.

Olefins are the raw materials for plastic making which can be derived from IOCL's petrochemicals complex. Olefins include ethylene, propylene and butadiene. Both ethylene and propylene are important sources of industrial chemicals and plastics products. At present, the plastic industries in Odisha are sourcing raw materials from Haldia and Gujarat.

The site would also offer hinterland connectivity owing to its proximity to National Highway-5, State Highway-12 and Cuttack-Paradip and Paradip-Haridaspur rail links of East Coast Railway (ECoR).

Plastic units in the park are expected to manufacture a wide array of products like fibres, reinforced pipes, automobile parts, pipes, corrugated sheets, woven sacks, bottles, construction materials and HDPE (high-density polyethylene) based furnitures.

The plastic park would offer some common facilities including raw material bank, incubation centre, common machine room, training centre, testing centre and business facilitation hall.

Meanwhile, a plastic, polymer and allied cluster is also coming up at Balasore in north Odisha. This cluster is being implemented by special purpose vehicle (SPV) called NOCCI Balasore Infrastructure Company formed between the North Odisha Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NOCCI) and Idco.

Currently, over 100 units operate from the cluster with an annual turnover totalling to Rs 2,500 crore.