Odisha hopes to pull more investors through special cell

Odisha that pioneered the single window system to fast track investment proposals is banking on its state level facilitation cell (SLFC) to pull more investors.

The SLFC has been formed to clear green category investment proposals in 15 days and non-green category projects within 30 days.

The idea behind setting up the SLFC is to make investing in Odisha a hassle-free experience and provide speedy resolution to all project related issues and grievances. Senior officials from the departments of energy, water resources and agencies such as directorate of factories & boilers, State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) are available at a single location at SLFC to guide investors, assess project proposals and utilities requirements and follow up for timely approvals for both establishment and operations.

The existing investors can also approach the SLFC for resolution of their issues.

Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary (industries), Odisha said: "Odisha been recently ranked fourth in the country in terms of ease of setting up a business. We are working towards making the processes further easy and quick. The state is committed to providing approvals to green category projects within 15 days and to all other category of projects within 30 days.

"Consequent to this initiative, recent clearance of two major proposals of Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Ltd and Indorama well within the 15 days time frame shows the government's commitment on putting the words into action", he added.

While a number of states are still in the process of setting up timelines for different approvals, Odisha has cleared timelines for various approvals required by an industry to set up and operate in the state since 2004.

Kalyan Mohanty, general manager, Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (IPICOL) said: "Through the SLFC, we are able to clear the investment approvals in a prompt manner. There have been instances where the proposals for green category projects have been cleared in less than three days.

"We have resolved issues for and facilitated more than 50 companies within last three months of SLFC operations. We are inviting all prospective as well as existing investors to approach SLFC for quick resolution of all project related queries and issues", he added.