ArcelorMittal's proposal to invest Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) for setting up a steel plant in north Karnataka has been granted in-principle approval.
A high-level clearance committee of the state government, chaired by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, cleared the proposal.
In November, a team led by the company's group board member Sudhir Maheshwari and executive vice-president Vijay Kumar Bhatnagar had held discussions with the chief minister, industries minister Murugesh Nirani, industries secretary V P Baligar and other officials to discuss the proposals.
The team had also visited three locations for setting up the project.
HLCC also cleared a Rs 32,300-crore (Rs 323-billion) investment proposal by another steel giant from South Korea, Posco.
It proposes to set up a 6 million-tonne-per-annum steel plant in the state. Thirty-six other investment proposals were also approved.
The total investment from these projects will be Rs 138,300 crore (Rs 1,383 billion). These projects expected jobs generation is about 90,000.
The companies would be signing a memorandum of understanding with the state government during the forthcoming global investors' meet in June 2010, Yeddyurappa told reporters after the meeting.
Two gas pipeline projects were also cleared, which include Reliance (Relogistics) to lay the gas pipeline between Chennai-Bangalore and Mangalore.
GAIL will be laying gas pipeline from Dabhol to Belgaum and Bangalore.
These infrastructure projects will help industries en-route and gas-based power projects along the route. Shell has come forward to set up their R&D Centre in Bangalore with an investment of Rs 1,376 crore (Rs 13.76 billion).
Zuari Fertilizers and Chemicals will be setting up a urea plant in Belgaum at an investment of Rs 4,565 crore (Rs 45.65 billion) with a capacity of 11.55 million tonnes per annum.
Wipro and Tata Elxsi have decided to expand their facilities near the Bangalore International Airport.
"With today's proposals, we are very confident that the Global Investors Meet being organised in June 2010 will be a big success," Yeddyurappa said.
More than 60 per cent of the proposals are in North Karnataka and more than 70 per cent of the investment would also be made in North Karnataka, he said.
Image: Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa. | Photograph: KPN Photo
