Bhubaneswar, Feb 20: With investment commitments worth a whopping Rs 70,959 crore, Odisha emerged as the favoured destination for investors at the recently concluded ‘Make In India’ week, held in Mumbai.
According to sources, besides mines and minerals sector, the State government managed to attract investors in areas like food processing, IT and electronics manufacturing, textiles, renewable energy and gems and jewellery.
“Odisha has secured investment commitments to the tune of Rs 70,959 crore. Of this, around RS 30,000 crore investments are from the mineral sector while the rest are from areas like food processing, electronics, textiles and renewable energy,” said Sanjiv Chopra, Principal Secretary (Industries).
He said the state received investment proposals from National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Vedanta and Larsen & Toubro (L&T). Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand had said that the aluminium major has made an investment commitment of Rs 20,550 crore for expanding its alumina refinery at Damanjodi and setting up of an aluminium park at Angul. Similarly, Vedanta has proposed to invest Rs 1,000 crore on an aluminium downstream park, close to the site of its existing smelting facility at Jharsuguda.
Adani Group plans to invest on an industrial park, an LNG terminal an LPG facility and a solar power manufacturing plant. GMR Group has announced an additional investment of Rs 1,800 crore. An Indonesian major has committed an investment of Rs 5,000 crore across multiple sectors.
In electronics space, Sanmina Corporation has announced an investment of Rs 1,000 crore on an electronics manufacturing facility while a team from mobile handset maker Lava International is set to visit Odisha soon to explore possibilities of manufacturing unit. In the renewable energy sector, Panchavaktra Holdings has committed to invest Rs 8,350 crore and generate more than 2,000 jobs.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiled the ‘Odisha Industrial Development Plan at the event. The vision document aims to draw investments of the order of Rs 2.5 lakh crore by 2025, generating employment for one million people.
Patnaik met a cross section of industry leaders and business delegations from countries like China, Italy, Japan and Korea. Apart from Vision 2025, the chief minister launched the e-Biz portal, a common inspection framework and GOiPlus, a web enabled land information system for hassle free business.