The aerial view design of Amaravati.

HYDERABAD: At $3.5 billion (approx. Rs 24,500 crore), it’s one of the single largest FDIs in a greenfield project in India in recent times and its coming to Andhra Pradesh.

For, Indonesian pulp and paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) is setting up not only India’s but perhaps the largest paper mill in a single site in the world with a capacity of a staggering 5 million tonnes per annum in Ramayapatnam in Coastal Andhra ’s Prakasam district.

The company has already identified a 2,500 acres site along the coast in Prakasam for the project, that is slated to create around 15,000 direct and indirect jobs. The unit will be producing packaging paper, specialty paper as well as writing and printing paper, according to sources.

Confirming the development, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board CEO J Krishna Kishore told TOI: “I understand that the $3.5 billion investment is India’s biggest FDI in a single site, greenfield project till date. It will create 4,000 direct jobs and about 10,000 indirect jobs apart from benefiting over 50,000 pulpwood farmers.”

‘Largest paper unit in India’

“We will be working with Invest India to ensure that the mega project gets all the clearances, including environment clearance from the Centre, within 12 months (by December 2019),” Kishore explained.

When contacted, Indian Paper Manufacturers’ Association secretary general Rohit Pandit said a 5 mtpa paper manufacturing facility would not only be massive by Indian standards but also huge even by global standards.

“It would be by far the largest paper unit in the country. In the last 4-5 years the paper industry has been under stress because of raw material shortage and imports that have been coming in at 0% import duty under the FTA signed by India, especially with Asean countries and Korea,” said Pandit.

Incidentally, the single largest FDI ever in India was the $12 billion Posco steel project in Odisha that was announced in 2005 but the Korean steel major pulled out of the project in 2017.

While officials of Asia Pulp & Paper, which is one of the largest paper manufacturers in the world, could not be reached for comment, Kishore said the land for the project has been finalised and the land acquisition process is underway. “The government has already acquired over 50% of the land required for the project and is in the process of acquiring the rest. Officials of the Indonesian paper biggie too have made nearly a dozen visits to the site,” the APEDB chief added.

He also indicated that the ground-breaking ceremony of the project could take place about a month after the MoU is inked, which is slated to happen next week. APEDB officials indicated that APP zeroed in on AP because they were getting land abutting the coast which would make it easy for them to not only import the raw materials but also export to big markets like China.

