Big bucks flow to Nitish's Bihar; Adanis to invest 7,000 cr

Photo courtsey: Patna Daily

Patna, May 27, 2011: Gujarat-based first generation dollar billionaire Gautam Adani and top honchos of his group companies met chief minister Nitish Kumar here on Thursday with proposals to make an investment of Rs 7,000 crore in Bihar. The group firm, Adani Power Limited, made a power-point presentation to the chief minister. 

Those who called on the chief minister were the Adani group chairman Gautam Adani, director of Mundra Port Rajiv Ranjan Sinha and Adani Power CEO Ravi Sharma.

"We have come here with mega investment proposal," said Adani and added that he was interested in setting up a 1320MW (660MWX2) power plant and develop coal mines with an investment of Rs 7,000 crore. The projects will generate over 5,000 jobs for the locals. The scenario in Bihar has changed, attracting them to come up with investment proposals, they said. 

The CM was told that the Adani Group has three companies listed on the stock market with a combined market capitalization of Rs 1.25 lakh crore. Gautam Adani said his company has made huge investments in power generation, logistics, coal mining and trading, city gas distribution, agriculture business and food processing sectors. The company has also started coal mining business in Australia.

Nitish expressed happiness that more and more private investors were showing interest in Bihar and said all investment proposals were welcome. Energy minister Bijendra Yadav and top state officials were present.

The CM directed the officials to study the proposals put forward by the group and asked the chief secretary to hold talks with the group regarding power supply from Adani Power Limited.