Bhubaneswar, Dec. 22: The state government, which has set a target to concretise investment commitments to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh crore within three years, today cleared 13 industrial projects with a total investment of nearly Rs 15 thousand crore.

The biggest one among the 13 projects approved by the state-level single window clearance authority, an official committee, today was Rs 11,7800 crore thermal power generation plant to be set up by Neyveli Lignite India Limited at Jharsuguda. The plant is to generate 1,600MW electricity.

The project will now be considered by the state's high-level clearance authority, which is headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The high-level committee is authorised to clear big-ticket projects worth over Rs 1,000 crore. This was the first meeting of the single-window clearance agency after the Make in Odisha Conclave held early this month. The state government claimed to have received investment intents worth Rs 2.03 lakh crore.

The authority also cleared projects relating to apparel, chemicals and petrochemicals, food processing, tourism and downstream in the metal sectors. The promoters of these projects are from all the four regions of the country.

The projects, which were cleared by the single-window authority, included two five star and one four star hotels in Bhubaneswar. The agencies involved in setting up hotels are Natraj Hotels, Mariegold Heritage and Crackers India. The Natraj group will invest Rs 140 crore to build a five star hotel and the Crackers intend to invest Rs 84.12 crore in its project. The Mariegold group's five star hotel-cum-resort venture involves an investment of Rs 268 crore.

The Carnivals Films group plans to set up one multiplex at each district headquarters with an investment of Rs 150 crore. The complex, among others, will have a food court, community centre and a super market. The other approved projects were a garment manufacturing unit in Cuttack, a biscuit and dairy products factory at Ramdaspur in Cuttack, a distillery with bottling plant at Chandbali in Bhadrak district, shrimp processing and freezing plant at Deras in Bhubaneswar, refined edible oil factory at Dhamra, ethanol factory Bhatl in Bargarh district, aluminium conductor and alloy rod plant at the aluminium park in Angul and steel billets, bars and flat products factory in Jharsuguda.

The state government in general has decided to provide infrastructure support, including land. In a related development today, the State Project Monitoring Group, too, met and discussed about the problems being faced by 16 other projects currently being executed in the state.