Essar group plans to invest an additional Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in Gujarat, starting next financial year, in a bid to make the state the 'petrol capital' of India.
"We have already invested Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) in Gujarat and have planned to invest further Rs 10,000 crore through completing our existing refinary at Vadinar (near Jamnagar in western Gujarat), and addition of new capacities in our steel complex," Essar Group chairman Shashi Ruia said in Ahmedabad on Monday.
"We are also setting up new power generation capacities at Vadinar and Hazira, expansion of refinery and gas extraction through coal bed methane fields at Mehsana and others," Ruia said.
Alluding to the period of violence in Gujarat, which started with the burning of a train in Godhra, Ruia said, "Gujarat is back on development mode after successfully overcoming the societal trauma, defying the doomsday projections for it just a couple of years ago."
Essar had planned to set up 2000 petrol stations all over the country, including 300 in Gujarat, he said.
He also said Essar has played a significant role in bringing waters of Narmada to Gujarat by constructing parts of Narmada canal and network of pipelines which had led to permanent solution of water problem.
