The board cleared a joint venture between Nagarjuna Holding, Hindustan Oil Exploration and the UK-based Hardy Oil to set up a liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, industry ministry sources said.While the Nagarjuna group will hold 51 per cent stake in the Rs 533-crore equity of the company, which amounts to Rs 282 crore, Hardy Oil will hold a 30 per cent stake worth Rs 166 crore. The rest would be held by Hindustan Oil Exploration Company. The capacity of the terminal would go up from 1 million tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes and the LNG would replace naphtha used at Nagarjuna's fertiliser plants.

This is the second LNG terminal at Kakinada to receive FIPB clearance this month. Earlier, the board had okayed the Tractabel-BHP joint venture proposal for such a terminal at the coastal city.

The boardalso cleared the proposal by Caltex to acquire 49 per cent stake of IBP in their joint venture for LPG (cooking gas) storage facility and parallel marketing.

However, industry ministry sources said the clearance to Caltex was subject to policy parameters as it involved disinvestment of a public sector holding in a joint venture company.

Multinational Caltex holds 51 per cent stake in the joint venture company with an investment of Rs 58 crore which will go up to about Rs 114 crore once it takes over IBP's equity.

The board also cleared a proposal of UPS Worldwide Asia for multi-modal transport including air cargo, subject to the condition that it would handle only export and import cargo.

The Rs 2.75-crore foreign investment in the venture is similar to the one between German airline Lufthansa and Ashok Leyland for cargo movement. The FIPB also cleared three software companies proposals worth Rs 5.5 crore besides a Rs 9-crore floriculture expansion project, sources said.

Meanwhile, a decision on allthree information and broadcasting applications, including a proposal by Sony Picture Entertainment Ltd, was deferred for four weeks at the ministry's request.

A proposal of Balmer Lawrie was also deferred, while Canon India Ltd has been asked to file a revised application specifying the investments and sale projections. Canon intends to enlarge its existing office automation business in India by introducing a wide range of new products.