Vedanta and Aditya Birla Group line up nearly Rs 15K cr each while JSPL and Tatas declare to raise their investment in steel plants to
Rs 1 lakh crore each
Bhubaneswar: Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani Monday announced an investment of Rs 3,000 crore in the state over next three years while Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran committed Rs 25,000 crore investment in its new steel plant at Kalinganagar.
Speaking at a plenary session of the Make in Odisha (MIO) conclave here, Ambani said, “Reliance has already invested over Rs6,000 crore in Odisha. And today I am committing to invest an additional Rs3,000 crore over next three years in our various businesses in Odisha.”
Reliance and Jio are dependable partners in ‘Make in Odisha Mission’ as well as ‘Make New Odisha Vision’. Besides, the company has created sustainable employment opportunities- both direct and indirect- for over 30,000 people in the state, he said.
“Our investment philosophy has a clear goal ─ to empower everyone in the march of development. Most of our investments are in creating the Jio network,” he said.
Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) chief Naveen Jindal reiterated his earlier announcement of Rs55,000 crore investment to expand their Angul project to 20 million tonne of finished steel by 2030. This investment on top of Rs 45,000 crore invested earlier will create jobs for another 50,000 people, he said. Similarly, Aditya Birla Group chief Kumar Mangalam Birla announced an investment of over $2 billion in Odisha over the next two years.
“Even as we are able to consolidate, we dream of higher growth trajectory here. We expect to invest over $2 billion here over next two years,” Birla said, adding Odisha remains one of the topmost investment destinations in the country.
Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said, “The association with Odisha is very long, more than 100 years old. Tata Steel was given its first iron ore lease by the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj in early 20th century. The group has since significantly expanded its operations in the state.”
“We have already invested Rs 75,000 crore and plan to put in another Rs 25,000 crore on the expansion of (Tata Steel’s) Kalinganagar plant. Our total investments will soon cross Rs 100,000 crore here,” he said. Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal announced the company’s plan to inject Rs 15,000 crore to raise the alumina refinery capacity at Lanjigarh to six mtpa and firm up downstream sector in three years.
“Vedanta has already invested over Rs 50,000 crore in Odisha projects. Fresh investment of Rs 15,000 crore will be made in the next three years for expansion of Lanjigarh refinery and strengthening of downstream sector,” Agarwal said this while addressing the conclave and later interacting with journalists.
Speaking at the meet, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar committed to provide bank help for whatever investments that will be promised by the investors. “They only need to worry about one third, we will provide the two third,” he said, adding SBI is ready to support all initiatives towards building a developed Odisha.