The State Government on Wednesday emphasised on establishment of apparel industries and harnessing of productive youth power in the sector.
Industries Minister Niranjan Pujari issued a direction in this regard while reviewing the progress of investment intents received in ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’ at a Inter Ministerial Committee meeting held at the Secretariat here.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi advised the Industries and the Handloom and Textiles Dpartments to take up a special drive with potential apparel investors highlighting the opportunities and supports available in Odisha.
Industries Principal Secretary Sanjeeb Chopra presented the updates on the investment intents received so far through various investor meets organised by the Government.
It was revealed that around 124 investment intents were expressed in Investors Meet at Mumbai, Odisha Investors’ Meet at Bengaluru and Make in Odisha Conclave at Bhubaneswar in 2016 and around 60 per cent of these intents have been converted to specific investment proposals and, of them 50 projects together worth Rs 1,23,760 crore have already been approved.
The approved projects have the employment potential of around 95,235.
Besides, five other projects have also been accorded approval by respective departments and authorities.
The approved projects are mostly in seven sectors like food processing, petrochemicals, chemicals and plastics, infrastructure and logistics, power and renewable energy, tourism and healthcare.
These apart, four other projects have also been approved by District level Single Window Clearance Authorities and balance 15 projects are under different stages of examination and scrutiny.
The major projects under review includes a rare earth unit by the Saraf Industries, an aluminum refinery of the l and T, a proposal of the Breweries of and Sense Infra, lPG bottling plant of HPCl and refinery expansion of the IOCl. These proposals after approval would add another Rs 66,356 crore of investment with employment potential of 7,418.
It was revealed that an Apparel Park planned at Chhatabar in Khordha district has already been grounded. Around 100 acres of land has been demarcated a boundary wall constructed.
It was decided to organise ground breaking ceremony of at least 20 industrial units to mark these occasion of the 75th SlSWCA and 100th SlFC sitting in September.
The units enlisted for the purpose include KTl logistics at Indranipatana, Cuttack, SMS India at Khordha, Ramco Cement at Haridaspur in Jajpur, JSW Cement at Kalinganagar, P and A Bottlers in Dhenkanal, Welspun in Bhadrak, Balasore Alloys in Balasore district, Eastern Nutriments at Ramdaspur of Cuttack district, Shree Cements at Athagarh, Indo Nissin in Khordha, Ultra-tech Cement at Athagarh, Costal Corporation at Deras, Deepak Fertilizers at Paradip, BPCl lPG bottling plant in Rayagada district.