Bhubaneswar, June 21: The Odisha government, which has been perturbed by the slowing down of industrialisation in the state, today cleared two industrial projects worth Rs 1,002 crore.

The first proposal is for a steel-processing unit at Kalinga Nagar that envisages investing Rs 900 crore and the second for a logistics company.

Industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra said: "The single-window clearance authority chaired by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi cleared these two proposals. According to the proposals, Bansal Mechanical Works Limited will set up a steel processing unit at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district with an investment of Rs 900 crore and Chhattisgarh's LL Logistics Pvt Ltd will set up a logistics park at Indranipatna near Choudwar in Cuttack district."

Officials said that according to the proposal, Bansal Mechanical Works will set up its unit on an area of 100 acres to produce colour-coated steel sheets and galvanised steel tubes. The plant will come up near the Tata's steel plant at Kalinga Nagar. The plant is likely to generate employment for nearly 600 people and create indirect employment opportunities for nearly 2,000 people.

LL Logistics will set up a warehouse, container facilities and cold storage on 70 acres of land and provide direct employment opportunities to more than 460 people. "Once the project starts, many other economic activities will take place and generate indirect employment opportunities for another 1,000 people," an official said.

President of Utkal Chamber of Commerce Ramesh Mohapatra said: "At a time when the industrialisation drive is not doing well, this move by the state government to clear Rs 1,000 crore worth of projects is certainly a welcome move."

Although this is the 63th meeting of the single window clearance committee, which cleared more than 200 proposals, industrialisation is yet to accelerate in Odisha. What is more important is that although the state government had signed MoUs with more than 93 industrial houses ranging from steel, power to cement sectors, less than 30 industrial houses have started partial production. The Vedanta group, which has already invested more than Rs 45,000 crore, is still struggling to get mines to run its Alumina refinery at Langigarh and Posco's steel project is in the doldrums.

Industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra said: "We are making plans to give a fillip to the industrialisation process. The chief minister had held talks separately with industrial captains of the country in Mumbai in February and informed them about the business opportunities we are providing here in the state. Odisha has turned out to be one of the few major states that had got an assurance of investment worth Rs 70,000 crore."

The minister added: " The state has already updated its industrial policy by introducing the new Industrial Policy-2015, which is getting a lot of good response from industrial houses. We are now in the second phase of reforms. We are bringing in more reforms in labour rules and tax structures. Our state will get definite attention."