The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals on Monday announced a new scheme to set up 'plastic parks' through a cluster development approach to promote India's plastic industry which is still in its infancy with hardly 1.5 per cent share in the world trade in plastics that will reach 140 million tonnes by 2012.
The scheme will ensure a state of the art infrastructure and common facilities to assist the sector move up the value chain and contribute to the economy more effectively.
The department sources said need for the scheme was felt urgent as the Indian plastic industry is large but highly fragmented with dominance of tiny, small and medium units that do not have capacity to tap opportunities of grabbing the international trade.
The Centre will bear half of the cost of the proposed 'plastic parks' as a one-time grant, not exceeding Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million). This grant will be only for development of common infrastructure facilities and not for production units.
The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals will soon issue notice inviting Expression of Interest or preliminary proposals from entities interested in setting up the parks. The applicants can be an enterprise, group of enterprises, industry association or any central or state agency.
A special scheme steering committee (SSC) will grant 'in-principle' approval to the applicants, requiring them to fulfil the conditions within six months for the final approval.
The funding will be to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) established for setting up a plastic park and such SPVs will be required to be a distinct legal entity formed by consortium of user enterprises, mother anchor enterprises, large infrastructure developers and registered as a separate company.
