Thiruvananthapuram, March 14 (IANS) Six months after the "Emerging Kerala" meet was held in Kochi to showcase opportunities to investors in the state, 30 projects under it have so far been cleared, state Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty said Thursday.
Addressing reporters here to give a report card of the mega investment meet inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September last year, Kunhalikutty said these 30 projects are at various stages of obtaining the licenses.
"The industries department is coordinating with other departments on those projects which have been cleared. Overall this event was a huge success and in the coming months, lot of surprising announcements can be expected," he said.
A presentation identified some of these projects as a Rs.6,000 crore petrochemical joint venture that utilises by-products from refineries, a Rs.2,039 crore convention centre near Kochi, a Rs.500 crore science park, a Rs.400 crore biomedical devices cluster of R&D units in association with the prestigious Sree Chithra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences in the state capital city, and Rs.100 crore seaplane service.
"The response to the event is still pouring in. We are getting calls from all over the world and through this event, we feel Kerala has been positioned in the minds of the global investor," said Kunhalikutty.
The state government, which decided to keep maximum transparency, ran into controversy after a list of all the projects that they received from various quarters was put up on the website as this included a few controversial ones and many of the projects wanted land.
"We have already given notices to at least 50 companies who availed government land, about two to four years back, promising to start business but have done nothing. They have been given the final ultimatum to either start or return the land," said Kunhalikutty.
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