Telangana: Investors back out despite promises
Previous agreements not being pursued by new government
By : sudheer goutham
Update: 2014-11-30 06:11 GMT
Hyderabad: Though attracting investors is very important for industrial growth, to actually get them operational and the production stage rolling can be tough.
During the Global Partnership Summit-2012, several industries, with investment of over Rs 6.4 lakh crore, were announced by the then state government. Over 140 industries of different sectors had signed MoUs with the government.
These projects were supposed to roll out soon and provide employment to lakhs of unemployed youth. However, most of the projects have not materialised even after several years.
“Though 140 industries had signed MoUs with the state government, not even 17 per cent of them have materialised,” said an official from the office of the Commissioner of Industries.
The biggest proposed investments in the state that failed to kick off include the three refineries that were to be set up with an investment of Rs 30,000 crore each at Kakinada and in the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region near Visakhapatnam.
The GMR Holdings Private Limited proposed to set up a 15 million tonnes per annum Greenfield refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex at Kakinada. “Even the Hindustan Petr-oleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) failed to get into the production stage,” said an senior official.
Separate agreements from non-conventional energy firms to set up plants worth Rs 55,000 crore. These included the announcement by business giant Yash Birla Group that planned its maiden foray into Andhra Pradesh by investing Rs 13,000 crore for a poly-silicon plant to make advanced, solar photovoltaic cells, and Rs 1,000 crore by the Birla Wellness and Healthcare division.
Also wind energy giants like Suzlon and Enercon, who had plans to bring in investments to the tune of Rs 36, 000 crore over a period of the next four to five years, failed to take off.
Officials said, “The companies cite many reasons like lack of funds, availability of land and environmental clearance.” Now officials say they are not pursuing these companies as the new state governments are not interested in them.
Industrial start-ups in State hit Roadblocks:
While the TS government has proposed its industrial policy, touted to be the world’s best policy with limited time frame and official accountability, certain establishments cannot be rolled out without clearances from the Centre. There are problems with regard to land acquisition, pollution control and environmental clearances.
“Single-window clearance involves clearing the industry establishment application in limited period of time. If the state departments have updated file data, then most of the 18 clearances required can be given within a week.”
“Registration with District Industry Centre, approval of building from local civic body, factory licence, registration with commercial tax dep-artment and other clearances come under state government.
However, an environment clearance from Centre, and Consent for Operation and Cons-ent for Establishment from the state pollution control board is done separately.” said the official. Over 419 projects, worth Rs 20 lakh crore, are stuck due to environmental clearances across the country.