West Bengal tops Investment Plans table

Kolkata, Jan 29 (UNI) Powered by huge potential in the steel and oil sectors, West Bengal has topped the league of the Indian states, attracting massive investment plans worth Rs 1,27,302 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal, the findings of ASSOCHAM Investment Meter (AIM) have revealed.

A statewise analysis of the ASSOCHAM 'Investment Meter' (AIM) has shown that the five states which attracted maximum planned investments include Orissa (Rs 53,997 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 47,393 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 25,195 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 21,660 crore), with West Bengal emerging at the top position.

Out of the total planned investment of Rs 1,27,302 crore (31.8 billion Dollars), the most of it would flow into power (Rs 20,450 crore), steel (Rs 17,133 crore) and oil and petroleum (Rs 4,850 crore).

The top potential investor in the state was SAIL which announced a maximum amount of Rs 20,000 crore in Kulti and Durgapur districts of West Bengal for increasing its steel production capacity. It was followed by L&T Power Development which laid out a plan of Rs.

20,000 crore in Haldia for increasing the power generation capacity by 2013.

Orissa, rich in natural mineral resources and naval connectivity, has attracted second highest amount totalling Rs 53,997 crore (13.4 billion Dollars). Metal&mines (Rs 20,000 crore), steel (Rs.13, 100 crore), power (Rs 11, 797 crore) and cement (Rs.1, 500 crore) are attracting maximum investment plans.

NALCO with plans of setting up two greenfield project amounting Rs 20,000 crore came as the highest investing company in Orissa. It was followed by Jindal Stainless Ltd. which announced an investm ent of Rs 9,600 crore in the state for setting up stainless steel plant by 2011.

In the power sector, Ashapura Minechem plans Rs. 4,232 crore to set up Alumunium refinery, a smelter and a captive power plant in the Koraput district, known for rich and diverse types of mineral deposits.

Maharashtra with investor-friendly environment, has emerged as the third largest investment destination for the companies planning to invest Rs. 47,393 crore, mainly in the promising sectors like oil&petroleum (Rs.29,083 crore), ports (Rs.10,750 crore) and real estate ( Rs.3,983 crore).

Essar oil plans the largest capex of Rs.24,000 crore in the state to triple the capacity of its Vadinar Refinery to 34 million tonne per annum by 2010.

The other prominent investor interested in the state was L&T (Rs.5,550 ccrore) which has plans for building up a new integrated airport passenger terminal at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai).

Reliance Industries is planning to convert the Rewas port from a minor into one of the leading ports in the country by inducing the amount of Rs.52,000 crore.

The southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka remained high on the investor radar of India Inc. The investment in this region has been dominated by power (Rs. 19,740 crore) and IT sector (Rs 1, 721 crore).

Tamil Nadu has been successful in drawing a total invest ment of Rs 25,195 crore, the maximum of which came for setting ujp mine and thermal power stations by Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (Rs 17,500 crore) at Perambular district. This was followed by Sisco (JSW Group Co.) which chalked out plans of Rs. 1,500 crore for Salem intending to double its steel production to three million tones.

Andhra Pradesh attracted investment plans upto Rs. 22,266 crore, with telecommunication and IT as the outstanding sectors. ONGC plans to invest Rs.10, 000 crore, as the highest amount in the state.

Also, XL Telecom and Energy Ltd laid out a plan of Rs. 1,100 crore for setting up photovoltaic thin film equipment in the state, followed by R-ADAG which is planning to set up a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in the temple town of Tirupati at Rs 150 crore.

Karnataka which has been ranked on the AIM scale at sixth position, received the investment announcements of Rs 21,660.2 crore with prominent sectors being cement, power and textile. The maximum investment was planned by the cement giant ACC Ltd for Rs 4,000 crore to increase capacity and upgrading facilities at its existing plants in the state and enhancing its captive power generation. The other top investors in the state were JSW Group (Rs.1,200 crore) for setting up cement plant in the state followed by Baldota Group ( Rs.

1,100 crore) which plans to double its wind energy capacity to 400 MW.

The mineral rich state of Jharkhand has lured the investors' interest as total investments announced during the period amounted to Rs. 18,783.3 crore. The largest investment was planned by Abhijeet Group (Rs. 18,3333 crore) for building steel and power plant. Also, the Hindustan Copper expressed its intentions to invest Rs 450 crore in the metals andmines sector to develop green field copper mines.

Madhya Pradesh, the third largest cement producing state, attracted the corporations like ADAG and Shree Cements which lined up a total investment of Rs. 13,097.6 crore. ADAG is planning to foray in the cement sector presently under immense capacity constraint, by capex of Rs. 10,000 crore for setting up four cement plants of five million capacity each. Shree cement (Rs.2, 500 crore) intends to set up a 6 million tonne cement manufacturing unit in Katni by 2012.

Despite being high on industrialization and development scale, states of Haryana (Rs. 8404.5 crore) and Gujarat (Rs. 6,481.6 crore) have received relatively less planned capex in the states.

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