GANDHINAGAR: More than 35 big-ticket projects, for which applications for clearances and incentives under the state’s industrial policy have been made, are expected to bring investments of around Rs 1 lakh crore to the state in the next two years, according to official records of the industry and mines department.
Investment proposals worth about Rs 26,220 crore are from companies belonging to countries like Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea and a handful European countries.
Interestingly, of this, Chinese companies alone account for Rs 18,100 crore.The players at advanced stages of investing are mainly in the steel, auto, chemicals, petrochemicals, cement and textile sectors. The Indian players are in the chemicals, refinery petrochemicals and textile sectors while foreign companies are eyeing the steel, autoancillary and petrochemicals sectors. Indian Oil Corporation’s Rs 30,000 crore expansion plan is under way, according to the state government’s records. IOC announced its expansion plan for its Koyali refinery in Vadodara this March and proposes to complete it before April 2020.
Few other investments larger than Rs 5,000 crore are at the execution stage. Two other big-ticket investments in petroleum sector — one by Rosneft of Russia (Rs 84,500 crore) and CPC Corporation of Taiwan (Rs 41,600 crore) — have been promised.
Russian oil major Rosneft and its partners completed their acquisition of Essar Oil last year and are doubling the refining capacity of the Vadinar refinery near Jamnagar to 40 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).
It will likely begin execution in one or two years. If these two big-ticket investment are included, the total investment coming to the state in the next two years crosses Rs 2 lakh crore.
Manoj Das, principal secretary to the CM and industry and mines department, said, “We expect that investments worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore will materialize in twothree years. The CM reviews key projects worth more than Rs 500 crore on a regularbasis and has helped remove bottlenecks and expedite execution. These projects will be operational in one or two years. We expect a major investment boost by 2022, as the bullet train, expressway, Dholera SIR, Mandal Bechraji SIR, DMIC, DFC projects will be operational and attracting large investments. The state is giving a major thrust to infrastructure development to boost investment potential.”

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