Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday invited investments from South Korea in the proposed Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region to be set up in Paradip.

An amount of Rs 13,643 crore will be invested in the project spread over 284sqkm#with 123sqkm of processing area exclusively for industrial and associated development.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited is the anchor tenant with a 15MTPA refinery under operation while other major companies, including Iffco, Paradeep Phosphates, Skol Breweries and Essar Steel, are present in the region.

The Odisha government is developing a plastic park spread over 120 acres to develop a state-of-the-art manufacturing base for the downstream plastic industry.

It is one of the four such proposed regions in the country and located near Paradip port.

Speaking at a session on investment opportunities at the Paradip region in the second India-Korea Business Summit in New Delhi on Tuesday, Odisha industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra said: "The Paradip region offers multiple strategic advantages such as easy availability of raw material for chemical and petrochemical downstream industries, sufficient port capacity to import feedstock, industry-ready labour pool, competitive power tariff, water availability."

"Chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals are one of the focus sectors in the Odisha Industrial Development Plan: Vision 2025. We have identified large opportunities in the sector and are developing world class infrastructure at the Paradip region. The project is also expected to create more than six lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities," he said.