Reliance plans Andhra refinery

Project likely in three years: Reddy.

Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector company, has committed to set up a refinery complex in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

The proposed refinery will be bigger in terms of investment than the company's refinery in Jamnagar, which is the world's largest grassroots refinery.

In an exclusive interview with , Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy said Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had met him in Mumbai and indicated the company's willingness to invest in a refinery in the state.

An e-mailed questionnaire sent by to Reliance Industries did not evoke any response.

"Reliance has promised a scenario bigger than Jamnagar in the next three years," Rajasekhara Reddy said. "We are insisting that any raw material tapped in the state has to result in maximum benefit to the state, and Reliance has agreed," Rajasekhara Reddy said.

Reliance had set up the Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat at a project cost of $3.4 billion.

Rajasekhara Reddy indicated the state government was working on a blueprint, to be released in a month, to revive the 38,000 sick units in the state.

"We are keen on reviving the sick industries and ensuring that fresh capital is found and infused into these units," Rajasekhara Reddy said.

The Tata Group had also, according to Rajasekhara Reddy, shown interest in handloom marketing in the state. "Details of the nature of their relationship with the government are yet to be worked out," he said.

The broad priority of his government, the chief minister said, was to ensure that general productivity across industries rose.

"Businessmen need not have any apprehensions that we will neglect their interests and focus only on the farmer. What we are doing is setting right the imbalances that happened in the past. The farming sector was hitherto neglected, but we will ensure that all the other sectors will be worked upon and given due importance," he said.

Looking east

• Reliance Industries has proposed to set up the refinery complex in Kakinada.
• It is billed to be larger than Reliance's Jamnagar refinery "" the world's largest grassroots refinery.
• The Jamnagar refinery was set up at a cost of $3.4 billion.