Odisha govt clears over $4 billion proposal of Haldia Petrochemicals

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has cleared the investment proposal of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) to set up an integrated refinery with aromatics complex for production of Paraxylene and Purified Terepthalic Acid (PTA) at a total investment of Rs 28,700 crores ($4.05 billion) near Subarnarekha Port in Balasore district.

The High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accorded approval to the proposal.

The biggest investment intent was received at the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018, the biennial flagship global investors’ meet held in November last year.

The investment proposal was submitted by the Bengal-based company on March 01, 2019. The land requirement for the project is 2000 acres which will be recommended for allotment post assessment by the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (IPICOL).

The land for the project has been identified in the vicinity of the upcoming Subarnarekha Port. The port, being built by Tata Steel in association with the State Government, witnessed the foundation stone laying ceremony last month in the hands of Naveen Patnaik.

The port is expected to be built at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore and will create employment opportunities for 12,000 people. The first phase of the Haldia Petrochemicals project approved today is expected to be operationalised within 5 years of allotment of land.

PTA, one of the products of this project can be used to set up downstream units in polyester fibers and polyethyl terephthalate (PET). These products are used by several medium and small scale enterprises to make garments, food packaging applications etc.

Considering the large population base and high GDP growth rate of Odisha and the country overall, the demand for these products is likely to be huge. It is worth considering that entire eastern India and nearby countries like Bangladesh are dependent on sourcing polyester fibers from the western part of India to meet the clothing demand of the region.

Therefore, it is envisaged that setting up PTA unit will trigger investment in these products and will catalyse growth of further downstream processing units along the value chain driving economic growth of the region. Since the total polyester chain starting from spinning to garmenting is a labour-intensive process, it is estimated that direct and indirect employment generation potential of the project is about one lakh people.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is one of the largest petrochemical companies in India, incorporated in September, 1985. The factory complex of HPL is located at Haldia, West Bengal and the first commercial production of this complex started in 2001.

HPL has played a prominent role in developing more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a combined capacity to process over 350,000 MT of polymers.

The main products of HPL are polymers and chemicals. The product profile includes polypropylene and polyethylene, including high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

In addition to Haldia Petrochemicals, the HLCA also approved the proposal of Indian Oil Corporation Limited to set up a polyester products manufacturing unit of 300 KTPA capacity at the textiles park coming up at Bhadrak district at an investment of Rs 1,970.52 crores.

 The project will create employment opportunities for 209 people and is expected to be implemented within 4 years of land allotment.

The HLCA also approved two proposals of Rungta Mines Limited. The first proposal was for the expansion of its 5 X 100 TPD sponge iron plant to 0.53 MTPA integrated steel plant at Karakolha in Keonjhar district.

The expansion would entail investment of Rs 1,677.98 crore and will create about 1100 employment opportunities. The second proposal by the company was for setting up an integrated steel plant of 0.53 MTPA capacity at Karakhendra in Keonjhar district at an investment of Rs. 1,848.69 crore. The employment potential for this project is 943.