The Hindu Business Line : Petro investment region project awaiting Cabinet nod

Kolkata, July 5 Pointing out that some 1.6 million additional jobs would be created in the next few years because of the current surge in manufacturing growth (now around 12.3 per cent), the Union minister of State for Industry, Dr Ashwani Kumar, said here that the ambitious PCPIR (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region) project conceived by the Union Government was awaiting Cabinet approval.

Speaking to newspersons at the sidelines of the 79th AGM of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, he said the project, expected to become a reality within the next five years, will involve coastal States such as West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat, with any one of them emerging as the site for anchor investments.

Investments, he said, would be in billions of dollars. States such as West Bengal which already have petrochemical industries, he felt, will easily be able to upscale existing operations under this project, which was expected to attract large investments from global oil majors such as Exxon Mobile and British Petroleum, and other players engaged in petrochemicals and chemicals. He said interaction with many global companies for investments in the PCPIR has already started. Describing it as a new industrial concept to spur investments in petrochemicals and chemicals, he said feasibility studies have been initiated for the purpose.

The Centre, he informed, was also thinking of a MIR (Manufacturing Investment Region) to give a boost to this sector which was now looking up. The proposal is to develop an area of around 250 sq km for developing the industrial cluster. The Minister said both PCPIR and MIR projects were in advanced stages of consideration by the Government.

Asked if it could also run into land trouble, like the SEZs, the Minister said the States, as principal stakeholders, will be able to acquire the required lands, once the new Land Rehabilitation measures under a proposed new Relief and Rehabilitation Act comes into play.

The relevant Bill is expected to be placed before Parliament either in the monsoon or winter session, and the law should become operational by end 2007, the Minister said.

Role of states

Clarifying that the Central Government will be working in tandem with the State Governments, the Minister said the proposed management board for the PCPIR project will be driven by the States involved. “Our job at the Centre will be to only provide the linkages.”

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