Orissa clears 10 mega projects

BHUBANESWAR: Seeking to accelerate its industrialisation process, Orissa government on Tuesday cleared 10 mega projects, including a ship building yard and repair facility and a petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR).

The mega projects got the nod at the high level clearance authority (HLCA) meeting, which rejected a proposal of Jindal Photo Limited that sought enhancement of capacity of its proposed power plant from 1,000 MW to 2,000 MW.

Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy said Apeejay Shipping Limited would set a ship building yard and a repair facility at an investment of Rs 2200 crore at Dhamara in Orissa's Bhadrak district. The project requires nearly 1050 acres.

"The project would be completed within five years from the date the company acquired requisite land for building the yards," he said, adding 11,300 people would get direct employment in it and nearly 40,000 people would get indirect employment.

On the proposed PCPIR, the chief secretary said the state government agreed to give its share of Rs 2,700 crore in the project which would be jointly developed by the Centre, State and through PPP (public private partnership).

The PCPIR, expected to be completed by 2030, would provide direct employment to 2,27,500 people besides creating 4,1,500 job opportunities indirectly, sources said.