Thank you very much for your invitation to speak at the third edition of the ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’. I am honored to be here among so many of India’s top industrialists. I started to come regularly to Bhubaneswar since our acquisition of Dhamra Port in 2014. I was 26 then and over the years, I have grown to love this great city.
• This is the temple city of India known for its convergence of our country’s Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cultures.
• This is the city that forms the holy Golden Triangle along with the breath-taking beauty of the city of Purusottama Puri and the city of Konark that hosts the three images of the Sun God.
• And this is the city that today continues its transformation under the leadership of its beloved leader Shri Naveen Patnaik-ji.
There could therefore be no greater reflection of the love, confidence, and faith that the people of your state have in you than the fact that you are in your fifth term as the leader of the State of Odisha.
Your empathy and social-based style of leadership are truly inspiring. And the best manifestations of your style of leadership are the social schemes you are implementing along with the strong discipline you bring to governance. Be it the Kalia Yojana or Mission Shakti or the game changing Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana health scheme that covers almost 100 lakh families, or the generous dietary stipend to sportspersons, or the smart classrooms you have built in the most rural areas – these are all game changers for the upliftment of the society and gives everyone the confidence to aspire. Equally impressive is your 5T program that focuses on teamwork, technology, transparency, transformation, and time limit, and ensures that the performance of your officials is judged on these five factors.
Honourable Chief Minister – Allow me to now outline the Adani Group’s plans for Odisha.
Our primary interests here are in ports and logistics, industrial clusters and special economic zones, power generation, transmission, and distribution, integrated natural resource management, renewable energy, data centers, defence, cement, and agri-businesses. We are leaders in all our core businesses – and Odisha is one of the most important states for the Adani Group.
Your guidance has led us to make great strides in Dhamra. According to our revised master plan, the Dhamra port will have 35 berths with a massive 315 million tons in port capacity. It is the first port in India to receive Environmental Clearance for more than 300 million tons.
We are also thankful to the High-Level Clearance Authority for approving our proposal to set up a 4-million-tons-per-annum alumina refinery and a 30-million-tons-per-annum iron ore project.
Honourable Chief Minister, the alignment between progress, state development and job creation is an essential part of all the investments that we make. I am delighted to say that our investments in the state of Odisha continue to accelerate – and, over the last five years, the Adani Group has already put in Rs 20,00 crore as we have gone about developing LNG terminals, the Dhamra port and our mining activities. The number of jobs created has already touched 10,000 directly & 30,000 indirectly.
Our continuing commitment to Odisha is showcased in our planned capital investment that will exceed Rs 60,000 Cr over the next ten years. I anticipate this will create tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and help reshape the economics of the state.
In closing, let me say that along with our investments, we continue to expand our social activities across Odisha via the Adani Foundation. One new activity we have been very closely monitoring is the formation of ‘Women Producer Groups’ that work to train women from Dhamra’s gram panchayats – and teach them to be self- reliant. I believe this will program be a game changer and help augment Odisha’s wide-ranging social programs.
It is said that, in the 18th century, when the British first saw the Rath Yatra in honour of Lord Jagannath, they were so amazed that they introduced a new English word ‘juggernaut’ – meaning unstoppable force. Today, you are the juggernaut shaping the unstoppable future of this great state.
Once again, thank you for your inspiration, guidance, and support. I look forward to doing our part to help build the Odisha that you continue to shape.
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