By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 22, 2018: Odisha on Thursday cleared four investment proposals entailing total investment worth of Rs 1495 crore. These projects are mainly in the sectors like food processing, aluminium downstream and aluminium smelter sectors and will create direct employment opportunities for 1230 persons.

The proposals were approved by the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority Meeting held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.

The investment proposals include food processing company M.B.Ltd’s plan to set up a fruit-based beverage manufacturing unit at an investment of Rs. 140 crore. The unit has been proposed in Khurda district and envisages creation of employment for 150 people, an official release said.

The committee also accorded in principle approval to the project proposal of the leading manufacturers of wires and cables namely A.C. Pvt Ltd. to set up a greenfield aluminium conductors and cables manufacturing unit at the Angul Aluminium Park with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum. The investment outlay is pegged at Rs 52 crore with employment potential for 180 persons.

The Aluminium Park at Angul is being developed as an exclusive state-of-the-art industrial park for ancillary and downstream industries for alumina and aluminium. The park is the first-of-its-kind in the Indian sub-continent with facility for directly obtaining molten aluminium from the smelter.

ITC Limited’s food processing unit coming up at Khurda also received approval to expand its product line. The construction work of the unit is currently in progress. The expansion of the project would entail additional investment of Rs. 63 crores and create additional employment for 100 people.

Vedanta Limited’s proposal to expand capacity of its aluminium smelter unit at Jharsuguda from 1.6 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) to 1.8 MMTPA was recommended to High Level Clearance Authority for final approval. This would entail incremental investment of Rs. 1240 crore and create new jobs for 800 people. The expansion would further bolster Odisha’s position in the global aluminium map.

Industry principal secretary Sanjeeb Chopra presented details of the investment proposals in the meeting which also deliberated on the progress of investment intentions received earlier.

Officials said, some 124 investment intents were received during the investors’ meets organized in 2016 at Mumbai, Bengaluru and in the Make in Odisha Conclave 2016. About 76 project proposals with an investment of Rs. 2.02 lakh crore have been approved in SLSWCA.