Land for petro-chem policy revision may revive Haldia project

With the revision of the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) policy underway, West Bengal may have the chance to revive the PCPIR project in the port city of Haldia.

"West Bengal was the first among the states to receive PCPIR approval. We will inform the (state) government about the new norms after the proposed changes take place," joint secretary in the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers Avinash Joshi told media persons here on the sidelines of an event organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Although showing initial interest, the state government had stalled the idea of the Haldia PCPIR in 2012 on account of land requirements.

"Among the revision proposals, we will reduce the land requirement of PCIPR from 250 square km to 50 sqaure km," Joshi said.

With the land requirement poised to come down, it is expected that West Bengal may show interest in reviving the abandoned plan.

Finance Minister Amit Mitra, earlier in the day, floated the idea of a petroleum cluster in Haldia and assured of land availability.

"If the industry wants a petro-chem cluster, it can come up at Haldia and government will help in organising the land for it. An industrial park of over 300 acres is also coming up at Haldia," Mitra said.

The minister said the state has 4,000 acres of fully developed infrastructure-enabled industrial land and another 4,000 acres of the same is coming up shortly.

"In total, West Bengal has 100,000 acres of land available from its various departments which can be used by the industries," he said.