The Hindu Business Line : States told to enact laws to promote petro hubs

The Government is mulling a slew of reform measures, including labour law flexibility and single-window clearances, for facilitating investments into the proposed big-ticket petro hubs called petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment regions (PCPIRs).

States such as Karnataka, West Bengal, Orissa, Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, which are expected to develop the first round of these hubs, have been asked to enact separate legislations on the same lines as the Uttar Pradesh Government's Noida law for land acquisition and fast track development of the zones, the Secretary, Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy, Mr Ajay Dua, said here.

Noida model

In order to attract investments, the Centre could be looking at customs duty waiver on crude oil imports specifically for these zones as well. "We have asked these States to use the Noida model and enact separate laws for the development of these regions. Single-window clearance of proposals and labour law flexibility are among the other enabling provisions being considered for attracting investments into the sector," Mr Dua, who was in Japan for the World Economic Forum's East Asia summit after a recent meeting with global petroleum company CEOs in Virginia in the US, said.

Executives from petrochemical giants including Dow Chemicals, Dow Corning, Exxon Mobil, Total SA and British Petroleum were among those present at the deliberations in Virginia on the Indian petroleum sector investment opportunities.

Spread over 100-250 square km of area, the PCPIRs are expected to be set up through private-public partnerships and each zone is likely to include a refinery and petrochemical plant with downstream chemical units.

The States have been chosen on the basis of the presence of certain key basic infrastructure facilities that can be expanded further.

For instance, ONGC already had a presence in Mangalore, Karnataka while the Haldia Complex in West Bengal could facilitate an early start up of PCPIR in West Bengal.

More Stories on : Petroleum | Infrastructure | States

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