Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for the petrochemicals park coming up on 229 acres at Ambalamugal. He said the facility pointed to the growth of Kerala as one of the favoured industrial investment destinations in the country.
The petrochemicals park is coming up on land acquired from the public sector Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore, close to the Bharat Petroleum Corporation’s Kochi refinery. The State had acquired nearly 482 acres from FACT. BPCL refinery was given 171 acres on lease for its development and expansion activities. Thirty-three per cent of the land is being set aside to create a green belt as per the recommendation of the Ministry of Environment.
The Chief Minister said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had succeeded in creating an atmosphere of confidence among investors. Both in the innovations index brought out by NITI Ayog and in the ranking in ease of doing business, Kerala had earned good position, he added.
“The Palakkad mega food park has begun operations while the Cherthala mega food park is complete. Work on the Thiruvananthapuram Life Sciences Park is in progress and the second phase of the Palakkad Light Engineering Park is complete. Work on the Ottappalam Defence Park is under way and foundation was laid for the Spices Park in Thodupuzha on Tuesday,” he said.
Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan presided over the virtual function. He also gave away the allotment letters from Kinfra to 17 units that have proposed investments in the petrochemicals park under the early bird scheme.
