Published on February 22, 2018
The proposed petrochemical complex at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, a joint project of GAIL and HPCL seems to have hit a roadblock with the Centre asking the state government to pay Rs 5,000 crore upfront in the form of viability gap funding.
The complex at Kakinada, East Godavari district, is proposed to be jointly set up by GAIL and HPCL, both central PSUs.
The proposed complex, with a cracker unit, was supposed to produce ethylene and its derivatives.
After a feasibility study by Engineers India Ltd, GAIL and HPCL signed a memorandum of understanding with the AP government during the Partnership Summit in January 2017 for setting up the 1.5 MMTPA petrochemical complex on a 2,000-acre site in the Kakinada Special Economic Zone. But the Rs 30,000-crore project did not take off with the Centre and the state squabbling over the VGF, said a top official.
