Mumbai, Feb13: The unexpected delay in completion of projects and the resultant costover-runs in the quake hit Gujarat may not seriously impair their viability,the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (Cmie) has said.`The fact that Reliance Petroleum's Jamnagar refinery could withstand theearthquake with a minor disruption of operations and Essar Oil and Larsen &Toubro also not reporting any stoppage of operations indicates thatinvestors are not likely to be detered by the consequences', the economicthink tank said in its monthly review for February.
Gujarat is home to 12 per cent of the country's investments and currentlyhas an outlay of Rs 1,68,200 crore with 326 projects in place.`The fallout of the earthquake will be more on project's implementationschedule than on the physical damages suffered directly', the reportexplained. By setting up the proposed port-based Special Economic Zone (SEZ)at Positra in the now devastated Kutch district, Cmie said, the proximity ofPositra to Bhuj would not be lost, but warned that Sea King Infrastructure,the SEZ's promoters, may have to review their plans in the event ofinvestors taking into consideration the risk zone seriously.
In the immediate term, investments would pick up sharply and reconstructionof several damaged structures in the state including buildings, roads,bridges, railway lines, telecom and power transmission lines would be takenup, it said.
The primacy of Gujarat in terms of investment in the economy could be guagedfrom the fact that in the last five years, the state had accounted for aquarter projects being commissioned in the country, Cmie said.
`Of the Rs 3,11,021 crore worth of projects commissioned, Gujarat's sharewas Rs 75,127 crore and in the current fiscal, projects worth Rs 3,195 crorewere commissioned out of a total Rs 31,960 crore in the country', the reportadded.
(PTI)
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