AP inks MoUs worth Rs 1.75L crore, RIL plans to invest Rs 55,000 crore

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and its partners plan to invest Rs 55,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh (AP)  as the southern state on Sunday received total investment commitments of Rs 1.75 lakh crore from various companies across sectors.

RIL and partners propose to make investments in energy, electronics manufacturing, digital infrastructure and other sectors over next five years, officials said on Sunday.

The Mukesh Ambani-led group signed MoUs for this purpose with the Andhra Pradesh government on Sunday, the second day of the CII Partnership Summit.

The investments committed by RIL and partners are expected to generate 25,000 new jobs in electronics, petroleum, retail, agri-processing, e-governance and other sectors.

India Gas Solutions Private Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture company of RIL and BP International Ltd (BP) in the business of marketing gas and LNG in India, signed a MoU with the state government, committing an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.

RIL and BP plan to develop offshore gas discoveries in Block KGD6 in the Krishna Godavari basin, through three projects with investments up to Rs 40,000 crore, officials said.

Development of the three projects is expected to bring a total of 30-35 million cubic metres (1 billion cubic feet) of gas a day of domestic gas production on stream, phased over 2020-2022 and will create considerable direct and indirect employment during the construction phase over the next 5 years.

RIL and BP plan to pursue skill development programmes as part of the execution of these projects. Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of RIL, will also invest Rs 15,000 crore to set up a world class electronics manufacturing unit on 150 acres in Tirupati, where it plans to manufacture Jio phones, set-top boxes and other electronics devices.

The company will also create digital infrastructure in Amaravati, the new state capital. This investment in the fields of digital infrastructure, citizen services and industrial development, is expected to generate over 20,000 new jobs.

The MoUs were signed by the officials of India Gas Solutions and Reliance Jio Infocom with the state government officials in presence of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Kiran Thomas, President, Reliance Industries Ltd.

“Every project that we signed MoU with the government is going to be implemented in a time-bound manner, starting from next three months to three years,” PMS Prasad, Executive Director, RIL, said.

He further said the projects related to e-governance and entrepreneurship programmes would also be executed within the time span agreed with the government.