PANAJI: Twenty investment projects worth Rs 1,107 crore with a capacity to generate employment for 2,619 people received the green signal at the 13th meeting of the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) on Wednesday.
Of the total projects, 12 are industrial, six in the hospitality sector and two are institutional projects. The twelve industrial projects include three expansion plans by companies and nine new proposals submitted by investors. While the approval of the new projects is in-principle and subject to clearances from various departments, the expansion projects are likely to go on stream immediately, said a senior government official.
In the previous 12 meetings of the board, 114 projects were cleared of which 15 are completed and 23 projects are under construction, said Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who is chairman of IPB, post the meeting. He said that cleared projects resulted in generation of 1,246 jobs over a period. Kineco Kaman, Shri Ganesh Indian Industries and MRF Ltd are the companies whose expansion projects were cleared. Expansion plans of the three companies involve capital of Rs 163.4 crore with bulk of it coming in from MRF, Usgaon (Rs 125 crore), which is doubling its capacity from 6 lakh to 13 lakh tyres annually.
The new proposals are from companies such as Encube Ethicals (pharma), Fulllife Health Care (pharma), Sunshine Pap-Tech (recycled Kraft paper), Softtech Engineers, Krishna Packaging, Franstik Belts, Livon Pharma. The companies have applied to the GIDC for plots in industrial estates.
Details on the six hospitality projects cleared by the IPB are little in terms of location or area. One is an eco-farm, a project at Assagao by Zephyr Holdings, in Anjuna by Ashray Developers and Happy Circle, Brahma Valley projects in undisclosed location. The hospitality projects will generate 1045 jobs. Of the two institutional projects, one is a vocational training institute in Verna by Fomento and the second project another institute in Shiroda.
Following the latest meeting on Wednesday, a total of 134 projects have been cleared by the IPB since its formation in October 2014. Recently, the Chief Minister had said that in-principle approval by the IPB should not be interpreted as “single-window clearance” as promoters will have to approach the respective bodies such as Goa State Pollution Control Board, Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, electricity department, municipalities, village panchayats and so on for their individual permissions.