In order to do so, the Indian chemical industry requires in an estimated investment of around Rs 40,000 crore in various sectors which in turn would require development of around 1,850 acres of land and around 800 mw of power. In order to speed up this concept of Mega Chemical Industrial Estate (MCIE) in the country, a task force has been constituted by the Government.

The task force is headed by the secretary of finance ministry and assisted by the officials from the ministry of power, environment and forest, petroleum and natural gas, surface transport in addition to office bearers of the Indian Chemical Manufacturers' Association (ICMA) and representative of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

The need to improve the overall performance of the Indian chemical industry was felt collectively by all those who participated last week at the seminar organised by the ICMA who deliberated on the subject of MCIE in various states of India.

In order to give fillip to the domestic chemical industry, the ministry had asked the states to present their plans in creating special purpose vehicles (SPV) for MCIE. This will help the central ministry to provide necessary requirements for MCIE in terms of money and infrastructure among others.According to Consul: "In the rapidly changing market condition, India should emerge as a major sourcing hub. In order to come-up at international infrastructure standard, India should have proximity to a world class and efficient port for easy access to world markets for import of feedstock and export of finished goods."

India's huge numbers of small and medium units are not able to make necessary investments in the industry for effluent treatment plant and power among others. The Ankleshwar Industry Association in Gujarat has a common effluent treatment plant which is shared by other industrial units in the vicinity and share costs.

"Industry players should understand that to emerge as world leader and to be competitive, they should have those facilities as developed nations have.

The concept of sharing of utilities and other by-products to lower production costs should be adopted which will lead the industry further in the global arena" said department of chemicals & petrochemicals, secretary Arvind Verma.

Gujarat's plans
The Industries commissionerate, Government of Gujarat (technical adviser), AKA Rathi, said: "Gujarat has adopted the model of development of industrial estates for the industrial development. Under the MCIE, Gujarat is developing Dahej as a chemical estate. Total area covered will be around 4,700 hectares, of which around 1,200 area has been alloted to IPCL, Birla Copper, GCPTCL, GACL, Pushpa Polymers and Petronet.

Stressing on environmental issues, the chief engineer of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, KB Bhagat said that, Gujarat has created Gujarat Cleaner Production Centre, its main objective to create awareness on cleaner production, cost effective training to industrial personnel on cleaner production assessment and implementation.

Kerala's Kinfra
In another presentation by Kerala state, Kerala Industrial Infastrucuture Development Corporation (Kinfra), managing director, GC Gopala Pillai said "the state Government has created separate body for MCIE, called Kinfra. Its main object is to promote and assist the development of industries by balancing social, culture, regional and ecological requirements."

Under the MCIE, the proposed location is the northern district of Kerala, Kasaragod. Total area will be around 3,165 acres. Since power costs very less in Kerala, the industries should venture in this MCIE. Besides, chemical activities under Kinfra, there will be an export park at Kochi, apparel park at Thiruvananthapuram, food park at Malappuram etc, Pillai said.

Orissa`s Paradeep
Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (OIIDC), managing director, Asit Tripathy presented `Advantage of MCIE at Paradeep'. He said" Orissa, a port city meets all the required critical parameters for locating a MCIE." He explained that the port has the deepest draught of 12.90 meters and commands vast hinterland of Orissa, Bihar And Madhya Pradesh.

Paradeep port at present accommodates 65,000 DWT vessels, but will be able to handle 1,15,000 DWT soon. It is ideal for bulk cargo, like coal, iron ore, and there is special facility for liquid cargo. Indian chemicals industry, having total turnover of over $32 billion. It contributes 12.5 per cent of the total Indian industrial production.

There are various issues yet to be tapped, like investment for upscaling of existing infrastructure, carrying capacity, environmental load, bilateral and multilateral assistance for critical infrastructure, safeguard interests of infrastructure investors, identification of and coordination between anchor investors and infrastructure providers and mechanism for enabling estate management by stakeholder.