Huge downstream investment opportunities to the State envisioned

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s offer to extend a massive loan to the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor has come as a blessing for the proposed green-field petrochemical complex near Machilipatnam.

The State government can now give it a fresh impetus to boost investments in the region.

Machilipatnam has been chosen as the location for it as a major expansion of the Visakha Refinery is under way at Visakhapatnam.

According to official sources, the petrochemical complex will be set up by a joint venture of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and the Gas Authority of India Limited with a total outlay exceeding Rs.25,000 crore.

The project cost is to be shared by the ADB, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Andhra Pradesh government and it has been given in-principle clearance by the Central Government.

BJP State president and Visakhapatnam MP K. Haribabu has recently told The Hindu that the Central government is keen on setting up the petrochemical complex first and then take up the crude oil refinery and it has initiated action for giving the projects a tangible shape.

Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation Executive Director P. Bhaskar Rao said the petrochemical complex would bring huge downstream investment opportunities to the State apart from refinery and cracker units.

The APCCIF has appealed to the Government to include about 1500 acres at Mallavalli in Bapulapadu mandal in the Visakhapatnam-Kakinada Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region in view of its suitability for manufacturing units.

The Andhra Pradesh Government had last year requested the Centre to establish a petrochemical complex near Machilipatnam in Krishna district and the onus is on it now to take up the challenging task of acquiring land for the mega project.

Sources in the Industries Department said not less than 20,000 acres would be required for the petrochemical complex and the deepwater port in the same vicinity.

Acquiring land is going to be a difficult thing due to the owners’ reluctance to give their holdings under the Land Acquisition Act.

Worth mentioning here is the fact that the State government was forced to ‘pool’ land for the Machilipatnam port like it did for the construction of the capital city Amaravati and it may have to follow the same path for the petroleum complex too.