Orissa to invest Rs 1,796 crore on infrastructure for PCPIR project

The Orissa government, which is awaiting the in-principle approval of the Government of India for the proposed Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) hub in Paradip, would invest Rs 1796 crore on infrastructure development of the hub.

“The Orissa government would invest Rs 1796 crore on infrastructure development on the PCPIR hub proposed at Paradip. The PCPIR hub will attract investments to the tune of Rs 2.74 lakh crore and we are awaiting the in-principle approval of the Centre for this project”, said state industries minister Raghunath Mohanty.

Mohanty said, the Phase-I work of the project is expected to be completed by 2015 while the entire project is scheduled for commissioning by 2030. The project will be spread over an area of 275 sq km.

After Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, Orissa would be the fourth state to receive the approval for this prestigious project.

Sources said, some ministries of the Union government had sent queries to the Orissa government pertaining to expansion of national highway 5 (A), sanction of additional railway lines (Haridaspur-Paradeep patch) and capacity expansion of Paradeep Port among others.

It may be noted, the Union government had asked for improvement in the initial proposal submitted by the state in July last year and a modified proposal was sent to the Union government in August, 2009.

Sources said, the project will require Rs 4,500 crore investment for the development of the required infrastructure in that area.

Most of the infrastructure projects will be taken up in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) has agreed to be the anchor tenant for the project.

The fact that there is a major port at Paradeep and about 285 square kilometer land is available in the vicinity of the port in single stretch has worked to the advantage of the state in bagging the project

The major chunk of the investment, to the tune of Rs 2.3 lakh crore, will be in the area of petroleum and petrochemicals. The project is expected to generate employment opportunity for more than two lakh people when fully commissioned, sources added.

The housing and allied construction will cost about Rs 23,100 crore. Similarly, external infrastructure like roads, logistic park, cargo complex, port and airport will require investment of Rs 15,275 crore.