UP targets Rs 25,000 cr investments

UP targets Rs 25,000 cr investments
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

AUGUST 11: Uttar Pradesh (UP) has targetted an ambitious investment plan of Rs 25,000 crore in its attempt to become a major industrial state in the country.

The state has identified IT, agro-based industry, leisure and entertainment, power and infrastructure as major thrust areas for investments, UP Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Friday.

To this effect, the UP government signed two MoUs with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Vavasi Oil & Gas Pvt Ltd amounting to about Rs 15,000 crore.

``In a liberalised economy, companies can choose their investment destinations and since 1991, the state has managed to attract Rs 79,000 crore of investments,'' Gupta, who is here on a four-day visit with senior officials, said.

RIL would lay 700 kms of optic fibre network in the state while Vavasi would set up an oil pipeline from Orissa to Uttar Pradesh, Gupta said. Around 10,000 information kiosks would also be set up by RIL in the rural areas over a period of time, he added.

Ajai Vikram Singh, industrial development commissioner and principal secretary to UP government, said another MoU was likely to be signed with the Aditya Birla group to set up a 565 MW power plant at Rosa in Shahjanpur district at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore.

Gupta held high-level meetings with officials of Reserve Bank of India and Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) here today.

Gupta, who is in the city with senior state officials to attract investments to his state, discussed with RBI deputy governor S P Talwar, the increase in quantum of amount available for sanctioning loans for development and assistance programmes while with the IDBI chairman G P Gupta, he sought financial assistance for setting up various projects in the state.

RBI was urged to provide loans to those sectors which have recorded a noteworthy progress for desired increase in the credit-deposit ratio (CDR) of the state, according to an official release.

Gupta said the limit of the general monetary measures should be raised every year so that the state could have new limit for these measures at the beginning of the new fiscal.

``The basis for fixing the limit of monetary measures should be defined in the backdrop of the state's gross revenue or annual expenditure so that this limit could easily meet the expenses of at least 15 days,'' he said adding that the limit of overdraft should also be raised from 10 to 14 days.