West Bengal govt. signs MoA with IOC for Haldia project

Kolkata, Sep 27 (UNI) The Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) today signed an Memorandum of Agreement with the West Bengal government for participating as the anchor investor in the proposed chemical hub at Haldia.

The MoA was signed by the Industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen and IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria at the Writers buildings here today.

Under the agreement, IOC would set up a 15 million tonne capacity refinery cum petro-chemical unit, involving an estimated investment of Rs 15000 crore.

Behuria said IOC was looking for a few foreign partners for investments and technical collaborations for this ambitious project.

Behuria, however, said the quantum of investment and production was yet to be summed up.

''Everything depends on the setting up of the proposed deep sea port near South 24 Paraganas district,'' he said.

Later, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said they have talked with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for expediting the proposed sea port project for which nine consultants had already applied responding to the tender floated by the shipping ministry.

A committee comprising representatives from different Union Ministry and the state Industry secretary would pick up one out of this nine for implementation of the project, he said.

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