Visakhapatnam: Aditya Birla Group on Friday said it will invest ₹ 7,000 crore in the next two years in Andhra Pradesh, one of the first big-ticket announcements at the start of the second edition of the state’s partnership summit with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The fresh round of investments would be in addition to the ₹ 10,000 crore the group has already invested in the southern state in sectors including retail, telecom and cement.
The AP government is expecting to sign over 400 memorandums of understanding (MoU) in the two-day event valued at over ₹ 7 trillion across sectors such as aerospace and defence, oil and natural gas, automobiles, life sciences, electronics, energy and minerals.
The new investments would help expand existing businesses, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, group said on Friday.
“We are acquiring a 5 million tonnes per annum plant at an investment of ₹ 3,000 crore located near Amravati city,” Birla said, adding that the company had set up a 5.6 mtpa plant in the state already.
The group has been aggressively expanding its business interests across the country in recent times. It had committed investment of ₹ 20,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh in October in sectors like cement, retail and telecom.
On the first day of the summit, a total of 128 MoUs were signed between the state and various companies amounting to Rs4.25 lakh crore, Palle Raghunatha Reddy, the state information and public relations, IT and communications minister said on Friday.
He said this includes 68 MoUs worth Rs4,900 crore worth of investments into the IT department alone which would help create up to 49,000 jobs.
“AP has abundant land, ranked number one in ease of doing business, 24/7 power and talent pool, which makes it very attractive for everyone to invest,” Reddy told reporters.
Union minister for petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan announced investments of ₹ 8,000 crore by Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC), ₹ 40,000 crore by HPCL and GAIL.
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