Reliance Industries to invest Rs 55,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh

Reliance Industries Ltd plans to invest Rs 55,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh in energy and digital infrastructure 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.

India Gas Solutions Private Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture company of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP International Ltd (BP) in the business of marketing gas and LNG in India, signed a MoU with the state government. 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 crores to create a world class manufacturing unit in Tirupati and world-class infrastructure in Amravati. 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.

On the second day of the CII-Partnership Summit, the AndhraAPradesh government signed a total of 263 MoUs with various companies involving an investment of Rs 1.11 lakh crore. This is expected to generate employment for 1.70 lakh people.

The energy sector alone accounts for investment of Rs 64,000 crore. Nine MoUs worth Rs 9,341 crore were signed in aerospace and defence sectors. On the first day of the Summit, the government had signed 77 MoUs that can bring in investments worth Rs 31,546 crore and create 98,291 jobs.