Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday laid the foundation for one of the largest single location steel projects proposed by JSW Utkal Steel Limited at an estimated investment of ₹65,000 crore near port town of Paradip.

The steel plant with production capacity of 13.2 million tonne per annum is coming up on the land which was earlier earmarked for South Korean steel major POSCO. In 2017, the project was shelved following local resistance against land acquisition.

“In the early 1960s, former Chief Minister late Biju Patnaik took a revolutionary decision and facilitated establishment of Paradip Port. It was a milestone in the development of Odisha. Now, Paradip has emerged as a major investment destination in Eastern India,” said Mr. Patnaik.

“Along with JSW’s mega steel, the foundation was also laid for state-of-the-art green ammonia plant and chemical manufacturing unit. All these industrial projects have collectively brought about ₹90,000 crore of capital investment for Odisha and would help generate 35,000 jobs,” he said.

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group said the foundation stone for steel project was laid at Paradip after his company did ground-breaking for ambitious electric vehicle project in Cuttack district.

Industrialisation is one of major poll planks with which Biju Janata Dal is approaching the forthcoming simultaneous General and Assembly elections.

“Due to conducive atmosphere for industrialisation, investment to the tune of ₹11,63,000 crore has been either proposed and invested in food processing, green hydrogen, renewable energy, electric vehicle, plastic and chemical, metal and downstream and tourism sector during past seven years. The investment created 7 lakh employment opportunities,” said Santrupta Mishra, BJD spokesperson.

Mr. Mishra said as pe the Reserve Bank of India report, Odisha is ranked third in terms of receiving investment in the country and second as per Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and Confederation of Indian Industries.

“The export value has got doubled in past seven years. During past two decades, cement and steel production in Odisha has gone up by 22 and 15 times respectively. The handling of products in port has jumped from 20 metric tonnes to 176 metric tonnes,” he said.

According to BJD, 41.3% of State’s own revenue comes from industries while in other States and nationally, the revenue from industry sectors stands at 28.5%.