CM wants to expedite PCPIR project

Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Friday asked the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) and other departments concerned to speed up the execution of Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (Pcpir) being set up along the Visakhapatnam-Kakinada coastal corridor.

At a review meeting held by the chief minister, officials said that bids for appointment of consultants for preparing the master plan of the project were being re-invited and the plan would be ready in a year's span.

The state government notified Pcpir along the coast to an extent of 603.58 sq km covering 110 revenue villages, 10 mandals in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts. The Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (Eptri) was engaged for conducting environment impact assessment studies for the entire project. A special development authority was also constituted for planning, enforcement and monitoring of the project development.

According to an official press release, the HPCL-led consortium comprising Total SA of France, GAIL, OIL and Saudi Aramco will be setting up a greenfield 15 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) refinery-cum-petrochemical project at a cost of $ 8 billion. Expansion of existing Visakha refinery of HPCL and GMR group's greenfield 15 mmtpa refinery in the Kakinada region are the anchor projects in Pcpir.

The project also includes construction of 140 km expressway connecting Pcpir with Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Gangavaram ports and also the proposed international airport at S Rayavaram. The expressway will shorten the distance between Kakinada and Visakhapatnam by about 30 km and also connect 12 special economic zones being developed in the districts of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari with ports and a national highway passing through the region.