New anchors give PCPIR new hope

Thomidi

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posted on 12 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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HYDERABAD: The Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, which has remain..

HYDERABAD: The Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, which has remained a nostarter for nearly a decade, is likely to be nudged to life with the state government roping in two anchor clients who will together pump in over Rs 60,000 crore.
The PCPIR, spread over 600 sq km along a coastline of 140 km, has for years been touted as the next big thing in AP, something that will put it in the Gujarat league as an investment destination. It was expected to attract Rs 63 lakh crore investment and create five lakh jobs directly and seven lakh indirectly. Then, the project's anchor client ONGC slated to build a greenfiled refinery at Kakinada cried off for want of a strategic partner.

But now, the state government has roped in GMR and B R Shetty Group to revive the project. Both companies signed MoUs with the state government during the onoing CII Partnership Summit here Thursday.

Speaking to the media after signing the MoU, S G Kishore, chief operating officer of the GMR Group, said, "We are looking at roping in a strategic partner for the refinery. We expect to commercialize the plant in five years."