Petrochemical regions attract investment of Rs 1.06 lakh crore

NEW DELHI: Petrochemical investment regions in the country have attracted an investment of Rs 1.06 lakh crore so far and the target is to achieve Rs 7.62 lakh crore of investment in time bound manner, Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar has said.

Kumar informed this in a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament attached to Fertiliser Ministry held yesterday to discuss the topic of 'Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs)' and Plastic Parks.

"The target of Modi Government is to achieve an investment of Rs 7,62,000 crores and generate employment for 34 lakh people in PCPIRs in time bound manner. Already there has been an investment of Rs 1,06,000 crores which has generated employment for 2.23 lakh people in various PCPIRs," Kumar said in an official statement.

PCPIR is a delineated area of around 250 sq km for setting up manufacturing facilities for domestic and export led production.

In March 2007, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the proposal to set up PCPIRs in four states -- Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Anchor tenant in Gujarat is ONGC promoted OPal, while in Odisha the anchor tenant is IOCL.

In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the anchor tenants are HPCL and Nagarjuna Oil Corp, respectively.

In the meeting, Kumar said the present challenge in the sector is value addition. "For that value addition, milking the crude for further proliferation of the downstream industries is needed."

Kumar also informed the members about the government's initiatives to increase the number of plastic parks from 4 to 10 to catch up with the increasing demand.

He mentioned that the number of Central Institutes for Plastic Engineering and Technology (CIPET) will be increased from 23 to 100, to create additional capacity for skill development in the area.

Kumar said the government is working on reducing the consumption of non-biodegradable plastics, and re-using and re-cycling of other graded polymers.

The government has instituted awards for Green Technology in plastic processing, to promote environment friendly efforts in the industry, he added.