Odisha steals march over other states in plastic park project

At a time when other states are still dithering on the right model to develop plastic parks, Odisha has become the first state to start work on it.

The plastic park in Odisha sprawls over 120 acres at Paradip where both the state owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) and central PSE Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) hold equity.

"Odisha is the first state where the plastic park has taken off. We have started the testing lab. The first batch of training programmes has been inaugurated," said Sanjay Singh, chairman & managing director, Idco and secretary, department of skill development and technical education.

Usually, parks envisaged by the Government of India are modelled on the ones in China. The model mandates creating the complete ecosystem from the beginning - this could be a time consuming affair. When all other states where plastic parks were supposed to be operational are still struggling, the Odisha government has declared a parcel of land as an industrial park and commenced allotment of land to different units.

“The plastic park houses a Skill Development Centre. It offers opportunity for upskilling the staff. Housing facilities are developed for both officers and workers. Idco has also prepared a shelf of project due to which a small entrepreneur need not run around to prepare a project report," Singh said.

In the wake of crunch in supplies, the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers has formulated a scheme for development of plastic parks to synergize and consolidate capacities in the form of cluster development. The Centre has approved four plastic parks for implementation by 2019-20- Assam (Tinsukia), Madhya Pradesh (Raisen), Odisha (Jagatsinghpur) and Tamil Nadu (Thiruvallur).

Odisha, however, has taken the lead and is en route to becoming the country's first fully operational plastic park in the country. The park is located within 10 km of the major port at Paradip.

The park envisages major investments in manufacturing units for plastic products such as woven sacks, plastic pipes, injection moulded components, films, pouches, packaging products and other consumer plastic products and supporting infrastructure for producing various components and inputs that go into the manufacture of plastic products. The park would be equipped with facilities for warehousing, logistic, plastic recycling, testing and R&D to provide better price realization and waste minimisation.

IOC is expected to provide the feedstock for downstream polymer units in the park. During his recent visit to the Odisha plastic park, the secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals urged IOC to provide raw materials to the industrial units on priority and on a discounted pricing structure.

CIPET has started a state-of the-art Plastic Products Evaluation Centre (PPEC) with testing facilities, processing hall/shop floor, tool room, design and product development facility with simulation and evaluation support, training and skills up-gradation facility in the Plastics Park. Spread over 5683 square metres, the  centre’s focus is on skill development, testing, innovation and creation of sample project profiles. This plastic park is being developed at a cost of Rs 106.78 crore, is nearing completion with basic facilities like internal road of 18m width, water supply system, overhead tank, drainage and sewerage system  already  in  place.