Study suggests 9 years for development of proposed petrochemical hub at Panipat

13-Jun-07

As per a study requisitioned by the government, the proposed petrochemical hub at Panipat needs about 5,000 acres of land and would be developed in two phases spread over nine years, and will be modeled on the lines of Jurong Park at Singapore and Jabel Ali Park at Dubai. While the policy on petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical investment regions is still underway, the state government has approved acquisition of 5,000 acres for such a region in Panipat. Acquisition of 1,500 acres for the first phase has commenced along with notification of incentive packages by the state for downstream industries that will come up in the zone. These include interest-free loans and exemption from local area development tax and entry tax for raw material, feedstock and capital goods, rebate on land purchase and waiver of duty paid on electricity consumed in the petrochemical hub. The project cost has been estimated at Rs 3,730 crore generating employment for 38,000 persons directly and many more indirectly. The hub is expected to house about 470 units which would bring in an investment of about Rs 13,000 crore. It would attract units in the field of films and packaging, filament yarn, polyester staple fibre, pet chips manufacturing, poly-butadiene rubber, woven sacks and master batches.In the feasibility report, the consultant said Rs 2,500-2,800 crore will have to be invested over the next 5-10 years for developing the region which will anchor IOC's Panipat refinery. It will be developed by a SPV formed by IOC, the HSIIDC and private developers. Last month the board of directors of Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation approved the incorporation of SPV for implementing the proposed petrochemical hub project in Panipat, to be incorporated jointly by HSIIDC and IOCL, with 50:50 shareholding. An MoU between the IOC and the HSIIDC had been signed last year in this connection.