Centre to set up 12 petrochemical complexes

Government is working on a policy to establish 12 more petrochemical complexes in order to have one complex in each 16 refineries, a move which could entail few lakh crore of investment, Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar said.

At present, there are four Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) or petrochemical complexes in the country. A PCPIR is usually a delineated area for manufacturing various types of petrochemical compounds. “..instead of four there will be 16 investment regions and we would be able to milk the entire crude to the last drop,” he said at the National summit on Indian Chemical Industry organised by Assocham.

“We will try to ensure that these petrochemical complexes will be accompanied by the processing industries,” he added. PCPIRs are currently present in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Speaking at the same event, Chemicals Secretary Surjit Chaudhary said that the government was working on a policy to have at least one petrochemical complex in each refinery which could result in an investment of few lakh crore. As per the PCPIR policy, the Centre has to ensure the availability of external physical infrastructure linkages to these regions including rail, road connectivity to national highways, ports, and telecom connectivity.