Centre to assess investment pullouts

 Concer­ned over decisions of ArcelorMittal and Posco to withdraw their mega projects worth around $18 billion, the Centre will send a senior official to six states to find out the reasons behind pullouts by big investors.

Additional Secretary in Cabinet Secretariat Anil Swarup will visit Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Jharkhand from July 26 to find out reasons behind the delays in the implementation of several big-ticket projects and problems faced by them, sources in the government told Deccan Herald.

In the biggest foreign investment pull out last week, the world’s largest steel-maker, ArcelorMittal, scrapped its $12-billion plant in Odisha. South Korean steel major Posco also scrapped a $ 5.3-billion steel mill in Karnataka. These projects were scrapped mainly due to delays in acquiring land and uncertainty over iron ore supplies.

The pullouts came at a time when India is looking to increase its steel producing capacity to 300 million tonne a year by 2025 from the present 100 million tonne.
Several other major investments were also stuck due to land and infrastructure issues. As per the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion estimate, as many as 250 major projects worth a whopping Rs 7 lakh crore related to power, steel, highways, ports and railways have been affected due to issues related to land, environmental and raw materials.

Swarup will meet state government officials and assess delays in land acquisition, granting mining permission, protests by landowners and other issues. On the instructions of the Prime Minister’s Office to the Cabinet Secretariat, Swarup will visit the states to assess the investment climate.

The Centre is worried that pull-outs by major players will impact foreign investor sentiments at a time when the country is trying to attract foreign capital.