Centre to give green signal to petro-chemical corridor in Andhra

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy on Wednesday said that the Central government is in favour of establishing a petro-chemical corridor in the state at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore.

The minister had presented the project report on the petrochemical complex to the Centre.

"Met Dharmendra Pradhan and proposed revival plan for PCPIR project in AP. This plan will pave the way for all round industrial development coupled with employment in the region. Also speedy implementation of VCIC corridor by our government to give fillip to investments," said Reddy.

Reddy believes that the project can create employement to as many as 50 lakh people, including investments flowing into the petro-chemical field in the coming 2-3 years.He also said that up to Rs 30,000 crore of investment can be expected in the East coast corridor .

The industries minister is also anticipating investments in the ethanol sector, considering the Centre raising ethanol blending in petrol to 20 per cent from 10 per cent recently.He said the Centre gave the green signal for a Rs 1,000 cr green field refinery to produce ethanol from molasses arriving from sugar factories.

Similarly, the state and central officials are in the process of preparing a plan for the viability gap funding. AP chief secretary and industries secretary will prepare the plan of action and the project work will start after receiving the Centre's assent.

Following his meeting with the minister, Pradhan said, "Delightful meeting Goutham Reddy. We had detailed discussions on strengthening oil, gas and petrochemical infrastructure in the state to give a boost to employment and economic growth."

(With IANS inputs)