Centre announces greenfield petrochem complex in Vizag.

Union Minister for Fertilizers and Chemicals Ananth Kumar recently announced the sanction of Greenfield petrochemical complex and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in Visakhapatnam and full-fledged Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology to offer B.Tech and M.Tech courses in Vijayawada.

The rain of boons brought cheers in the top echelons of power in the Andhra Pradesh Government on the concluding day of three-day CII Partnership Summit with Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu attending it. “We are extremely grateful to the NDA Government and Mr. Ananth Kumar for accepting our requests,” Mr. Naidu told .

Mr. Ananth Kumar said that as part of proposal mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under ‘Make in India’ programme, a medical devices manufacturing facility would be located in Andhra Pradesh with a potential investment of Rs.20,000 crore. This would also bring down the cost of health care drastically.

He said that NIPER would help meet the demand for specialised manpower for converting Visakhapatnam into a pharmaceutical hub. On the other hand, he said that CIPET branch at Vijayawada, which was now offering diploma courses, would offer graduate and post-graduate engineering courses with an in-take capacity of 5,000. The institute presently has a capacity of 200 seats.

Referring to development of Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) proposed between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, he said that after a talk with Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in-principle approval had been given for setting up of petrochemical complex in Visakhapatnam by public sector companies Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Gas Authority of India Limited.

Without disclosing investment in the complex, he said that high-level meeting would be held in New Delhi next month with Mr. Pradhan, Chief Minister Naidu and top officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, HPCL and GAIL to discuss nitty-gritty of the ambitious project with huge employment potential.

Mr. Ananth Kumar said that the Centre would also extend full support to ‘Sunrise AP’ to set up power plants particularly in wind and solar energy to make the State a hub for renewal energy.

THE HINDU