Boost for Andhra Pradesh: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited commits to invest Rs 55,000 crore in 4 years

In a big fillip to Andhra Pradesh, Reliance Industries (RIL) and its associate companies have made a committed investment of Rs 55,000 crore in the state to facilitate the business of marketing gas and LNG. India gas Solutions Private, a 50:50 joint venture company of RIL, BP International (BP) and Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) during the three-day CII Partnership Summit with a committed investment of Rs 40,000 crore. In addition, another Rs 15,000 crore investment has been proposed by Reliance Infocomm for expanding its digital infrastructure operations in the state. RIL and BP announced that they are moving forward to develop discovered offshore gas discoveries in Block KGD6 in Krishna Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh through three projects with investments of upto Rs 40,000 crore. The development of the three projects is expected to bring a total capacity of 30-35million cubic metres of gas a day of domestic gas production onstream, which is phased over 2020-2022 and will create considerable direct and indirect employment during the construction phase over the next five years.

Also, RIL and BP plan to pursue skill development programmes as part of the execution of these projects. Mukesh Ambani, chairman, RIL, had recently met Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu for discussing the business prospects for the state. Besides oil and gas, Reliance Infocomm, a subsidiary of RIL, will commit direct and/or indirect investment to Andhra Pradesh in the field of digital infrastructure, citizen services and industrial development involving an investment of approximately Rs 15,000 crore and is expected to generate over 20,000 new jobs. The company is expected to invest in the proposed Electronic Park in Tirupati and develop infrastructure for the state capital, Amaravati. Meanwhile, as part of other agreements signed at the Summit, Ace Urban Infocity, formerly known as L&T Infocity, has planned to develop a fully integrated innovation technology campus in Visakhapatnam with an investment of `crore. The facility, first of its kind in India, is expected to create 18,000 jobs in IT and ITES innovation.