Three Indian states move closer to becoming petchem hubs

05 February 2009 12:33  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW DELHI (ICIS news)--Proposals to set up multi-billion dollar petrochemical hubs in India’s Gujarat, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh states have cleared the second stage of the government’s approval process, a senior government official said on Thursday.

“The proposals have been submitted now for approval by the cabinet committee on economic affairs – the final stage before implementation,” said Neel Kamal Darbari, the joint secretary of India’s Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

She was speaking on the sidelines the India-US Plastics Industry Summit 2009.

The three sites that were approved by the committee are Dahej in Gujarat, Haldia in West Bengal and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

However, three other proposals submitted for development as so-called Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs) did not get the committee’s approval.

“There were some gaps in the remaining three proposals, so they will have to be reworked and re-submitted,” Darbari said.

The failed proposals were for sites in Mangalore in Karnataka, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu and Paradip in Orissa.

All six states had earlier submitted proposals to the government's Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals for setting up integrated petrochemical hubs with foreign and domestic investment.

The committee includes ministers from the ministries of petrochemicals, transportation, energy and finance as well as state chief ministers.

The India-US Plastics Industry Summit has been convened by the PlastIndia Foundation and the Confederation of Indian Industry in partnership with SPI, the US plastics industry trade association.

The summit is concurrent with PlastIndia 2009, India's largest plastics industry exhibition, which started on 4 February and ends on 9 February.

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By: Prema Viswanathan
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