Cabinet Secy Mission To Offer $15bn Core Sector Projects To Us

A slew of projects valued at over $15 billion in the infrastructure sectors of power, petroleum, telecom, roads, civil aviation and ports will be offered to American investors during the forthcoming visit of a delegation led by cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian.

The delegation, which will include several secretaries of infrastructure ministries and chief economic advisor Shankar Acharya, will leave on June 10 and hold a series of meetings with American companies and investors.

Sources revealed that the government was working post haste to tie up several loose ends in the policy framework in sectors like power to ensure that there are no impediments to foreign direct investments.

 

The financial closure of several mega power projects have been held up for want of clarity on some critical issues.

The projects we propose to put up before these investors include some oil pipelines, highways, ports, coal mining and power projects. These are all medium-sized projects, officials said.

Officials opined that they would seek to impress upon the American investors that the government was intent on removing red tapes and ushering in private investment in infrastructure.

We have already taken several steps and some are on the anvil. The setting up of the environment appellate authority is one such step in this direction.

We will also be moving a bill in Parliament which will permit entry of private sector into non-captive coal mines, officials added.

The projects on offer include six in transmission networks aggregating $2.3 billion and the 1,000 mw coal-based Nabinagar project in Bihar. It will have access to Dumargarh coal mine with coal reserves of 268 million tonnes.

In the petroleum sector four refinery projects worth $6.3 billion along with 12 product pipelines worth $1.1 billion will be offered. The four projects are 27 mmtpa new grassroot refining capacity addition, two 6 mmtpa each involving West Coast JVC Refinery with Hindustan Petroleum and Southern India JVC refinery with Indian Oil Corporation and two refineries in the private sector of 9 and 6 mmtpa.

In the coal sector, the government offer includes seven blocks with reserves of 3,500 million tonnes in Eastern Coalfields Ltd, nine blocks with reserves of 4,000 million tonnes in Central Coalfields Ltd and eight blocks with reserves of 861 million tonnes in Western Coalfields Ltd.

In the ports sector, the projects on offer fore foreign direct investment aggregating $6.7 billion include Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Kandla, Chennai, Vizag, Kochi, Calcutta and Paradip.

Some projects in urban infrastructure are also included. The government recognises that a large portion of these investment and service needs must be met by the private sector, and welcomes domestic and international investors in urban infrastructure, officials said.