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Giving a much-needed boost to large-scale infrastructure projects, the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Monday cleared 25 of the 31 oil and gas blocks that were held up for want of clearances. The committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also cleared 13 power projects, freeing up stalled investment of around Rs 33,000 crore.
The blocks were stalled due to security restrictions imposed by the defence ministry. According to the government, the decision will put to use investments worth $2.71 billion and lead to further investments of close to $1.9 billion over the next three to five years in the petroleum sector.
Of the 25 blocks that got the green signal on Monday, nine were fully cleared and 16 blocks were cleared with specific conditions. The CCI has till now cleared oil and gas blocks with investments worth $13.42 billion, including six in March.
The high-level panel also discussed 20 power projects costing Rs 1,000 crore or more in on Monday’s meeting. Of this, 13 projects — 10 transmission, one hydro-electric and two thermal — were cleared on Monday involving investment of about Rs 33,000 crore, said a government statement. One has already been recommended by the Expert Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests for clearance. According to sources, the projects taken up by CCI included Rs 3,745-crore Vishnugad Pipalkoti hydro project by THDC India; Rs 3,300-crore Feroze Gandhi power plant of NTPC Ltd; Rs 7,075-crore Bilaspur-Ranchi 765 kilovolt transmission line project by Powergrid Corp (PGCIL); 400 Kv Silchar transmission line project of PGCIL; Rs 2,500-crore Mejia unit 5 project and Rs 3,000-crore Raghunathpur power plant of Damodar Valley Corp (DVC). CCI also considered 13 blocks of Reliance Industries-BP combine, 15 of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) or its lead consortium, two blocks of Santos of Australia and one block of Cairn India-led consortium.
Earlier, of the 40 blocks where exploration and production activities were stopped for want of clearances from the defence and commerce ministries, one block was cleared by the commerce ministry, which had overlapped with an SEZ area. Of eight no-go blocks, objected to by the defence ministry, five blocks were cleared by CCI at its meeting on March 20. Following these clearances, total investment already made of $10.7 billion in these five blocks will be put to use and further investment of $0.6 billion is envisaged in these blocks.
“We believe that CCI’s intervention will help the industry in long time. In the last three months, this has increased the level of activities in our blocks to a huge extend,” said P Elango, wholetime director and interim chief executive officer, Cairn India.
