VIJAYAWADA: The third meeting of the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the State Secretariat on Thursday, approved Rs 44,776 crore investments of 15 industrial projects, which will generate 19,500 jobs.
With the fresh approvals, the total investment proposals cleared by SIPB in the past seven months crossed Rs 3 lakh crore, which will provide employment to 3.12 lakh people. The first SIPB meeting cleared Rs 83,987 crore investments, second Rs 1,82,162 crore and the third Rs 44,776 crore respectively. This shows that the TDP-led NDA government’s efforts to attract investments have yielded positive results as industrialists from various sectors are evincing interest in investing in Andhra Pradesh.
Along with these investment proposals, projects of ArcelorMittal, NTPC, HPCL and BPCL have already got clearance. Projects like ArcelorMittal Steel (Rs 1.36 lakh crore investment) and BPCL (Rs 96,000 crore investment) are set to be grounded within the next three months.
The Chief Minister directed officials to ensure that all the cleared projects are grounded at the earliest. “The progress of every project with an investment of over Rs 10 crore should be closely monitored,” he asserted.
He also directed that a convenor be appointed to facilitate speedy approvals, and resolve any field-level obstacles. The officials should engage with companies like DP World from Dubai and others, which evinced interest in investing in AP during his Davos visit, to finalise investments. Using every opportunity to get investments and with focus on tourism, the State should aim to achieve 20% growth rate, he said.