The Union government will invest about Rs. 1.2 lakh crore in the petroleum sector in Andhra Pradesh over the next couple of years to make the State a leading petroleum hub, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.
He was speaking at Vangali village in Sabbavaram mandal of Visakhapatnam district after Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) and the Skill Development Institute (SDI).
Mr. Pradhan said that the government was keen on setting up the proposed petro-chemical complex in AP and there was no room for any doubt. “We have set aside about Rs. 35,000 crore for the complex and it is likely to come up in the Visakhapatnam-Kakinada- Rajahmundry corridor,” he said.
This apart, the Union Government will be pumping in another Rs. 21,000 crore to enhance the production capacity of the refinery of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited in Visakhapatnam from 8.5 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes. The stone for expansion would be laid in December, the Minister said.
The total investment for all these projects, including the investment for setting up of IIPE and SDI, would be to the tune of Rs. 62,000 crore, said Mr. Pradhan. The Minister said that an additional amount of Rs. 60,000 crore had been set aside for investment in KG Basin in Krishna and Godavari districts for exploration of natural gas. In total, the investment will be about Rs. 1.2 lakh crore. Mr. Pradhan pointed out that the government had already made a provision for Rs. 600 crore for investment in the IIPE to make it world-class. The amount will be invested in phases.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said that about 1,200 students were already undergoing training at the SDI at the temporary campus at Arilova in Visakhapatnam city and the IIPE had already started functioning on AU campus. “The idea is to train at least 10,000 students every year and to make them industry-ready at the SDI,” he pointed out. The State-wide Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched at the venue. Mr. Naidu said that 90 per cent of the households in AP had LPG connections and by June 2017, the remaining would be covered. AP would be a kerosene-free State and will be the first to be fully electrified by then, he added.
Government keen on setting up petro-chemical complex in Andhra Pradesh
Dharmendra Pradhan
Union Minister
