AHMEDABAD: More and more companies — domestic and international — are setting their eyes on Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) at Dahej. The region attracted projects entailing investments worth Rs 25,163 crore in last one year alone.

Home grown companies like Emami group, MRF Limited, Grasim Industries Limited, Bodal Chemicals Limited and GACL-NALCO Alkalies and chemicals Ltd (GNAL) have proposed their greenfield and brownfield projects in the PCPIR, which is spread across 44 villages of Vagra and Bharuch talukas in Bharuch district. It comprises prominent industrial estates including Dahej SEZ along with Vilayat and Saykha.

More than Rs 950 crore worth of investments in the PCPIR region have also been proposed by foreign firms. These include South Korea-based Kukdo Chemicals which has committed Rs 320 crore in addition to Swedish chemical major, Perstorp, which has proposed an investment of Rs 650 crore.

Investments to create 14,000 jobs

The proximity to the port in addition toenvironmental benefits such as effluent treatment plants are major benefitsof PCPIR. Moreover, itis a symbiotic ecosystem wherein raw material manufacturers are also present and this can mutually benefit companies,” said D Thara, managing director, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation ( GIDC ), a nodal agency for thePCPIR.

An estimated direct employment of 14,000 will be generated through these investments, said sources. Indirect investments in allied industries will also be generated. Most of these firms have been allocated land in the Saykha industrial estate. GIDChas so far allotted 5,000 hectares of land to nearly 650 industrial unitsin thePCPIR, of which around 200 units, including a mega petrochemical project of ONGC Petro additions Ltd (OPal), have gone into production.

