Tadepalli: Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister Dharmendra Pradhan r esponded positively to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s request for the supply of iron ore from NMDC to the proposed steel plant at YSR Kadapa district and said that the state would get Rs 2 lakh crore investments in the next five years.

The union minister revealed that the Centre was ready to supply iron ore to the proposed steel plant. The state government and the NMDC would sign an agreement in this regard very soon, he said during a meeting at the Secretariat here on Friday which was attended by the state and central government officials.

Many big players in the petroleum sector are showing interest in investing in Andhra Pradesh which is on the east coast and in the coming five years there will be Rs 2 lakh crore investments coming into the state in petrol, natural gas and steel sectors, the union minister said. The quantum of investments would increase through setting up of Kadapa Steel Plant, expansion projects in Visakhapatnam and by setting up of petro complex at Kakinada. He said that Andhra Pradesh has an open mind on industrialisation.

In response to the state government request to expedite payment of Rs 81 crore to 16,554 fishermen of Bhairavapalem village in East Godavari district who were affected by the off-shore drilling by the ONGC Limited, the union minister directed the ONGC officials to clear the compensation immediately.

He also responded positively and agreed that the Oil and Natural Gas companies should fulfil their corporate social responsibility by earmarking adequate funds depending on their turnover.

The Chief Minister also sought an equal share of the royalty collected by the union government from oil and gas companies as the establishments pose various environmental risks and also cause depletion of the fish population.

The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to set up a greenfield crude oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Kakinada as mentioned in Section 93 (4) of AP Reorganisation Act-2014. He also asked for setting up of a Petroleum University in Kakinada as skilled manpower is required for the upcoming major project of KG-DWN 98/2 of the ONGC.

The union minister congratulated the chairmen of ONGC and HPCL for sorting out the pending issues in pipeline laying and other issues pending for a long time.

The Chief Minister said that the state would cooperate and extend all possible help to the Centre and is firm on rapid industrialisation.

The meeting was attended by Union Secretary for Steels, Binoy Roy, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, Amarnath, NMDC CMD Sasi Shankar, HPCL CMD Mukesh Kumar Surana, RINL CMD PK Rath among others.

Chief Minister YS Jagan hosted a lunch for the Union Minister at his residence in Tadepalli.

Pictures | YS Jagan Meeting With Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel