Odisha's in principle nod to projects worth Rs.470 crore

The Odisha government on Wednesday accorded in principle approval to two projects with total investment of Rs.470 crore.

The State-Level Single-Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) meeting held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi approved the projects.

The proposal of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(BPCL) to set up a Common User Facility (CUF) for storage of petroleum products at Meramunduli in Dhenkanal district with a total investment of Rs.270 crore has been approved, said Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha general manager Kalyan Mohanty.

This project is a common arrangement of IOCL, BPCL and HPCL.

The CUF shall cater to receipt and storage of petroleum products like petrol, diesel, Kerosene, fuel oil, light diesel. High performance petrol and diesel will also be blended at the CUF with imported additives, he added.

The project will require 90 acres of land and 450 KW of power. It will provide direct and contractual employment to around 344 persons, said Mohanty.

The proposal of Starlight Energy Ltd. to set up an Integrated Grain based Distillery unit along with a Parboiled Rice Mill and Co-Generation Biomass power plant at Goud Sariguda in Kalahandi district with a total investment of Rs.137 crore was also approved.

The project requires 195 acres of land and 1 MW power as stand by for start-up of the biomass power plant, said an official release.

The industry will make use of broken rice from the rice mills, maize and other grains produced in Odisha for distillery unit. The husk from the rice mills will be used as principal raw material for production of biomass power, it added.

It will produce neutral alcohol for medicine, ethanol for blending in petrol and anhydrous alcohol for industrial use. The unit will provide direct and contractual employment to 108 people.

The SLSWCA also reviewed the progress of the investment projects that were approved during the year 2015.

Available data shows, during this year, a total number of 7 projects were approved by High Level Clearance Authority out of which 2 projects have started production and 3 are in different phases of completion.

Similarly, during 2015, SLSWCA cleared a total number of 23 projects of which two have started production and 20 are in different phases of construction, the release added.

The project proponents of balance two projects cleared through HLCA and 1 project cleared by SLSWCA have been asked to expedite grounding of their projects.