Though the month of November did not see sizeable increase in the number of new startups as compared to September or October, the presence of 18 mega projects (investment of Rs 500 crore or more) saw fresh investment commitments surge up by around 80 per cent when compared with such investment proposed in October 2009.

In all, the month of November saw announcement of 658 projects entailing a total investment of Rs 65,675 crore as against 660 projects worth Rs 23,490 crore announced in October 2009.

Among the states, Gujarat was on the forefront in attracting fresh investment. The state which attracted 38 projects worth Rs 27,751 crore cornered around 42 per cent of the fresh investment proposals emanated in November 2009. Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were the other states which attracted sizeable fresh investment.

The Manufacturing and the Infrastructure sectors, though managed to attract a couple of mega projects, they could not match the performance of the Electricity sector. The Power sector, helped by six mega projects, accounted for around 60 per cent of the total fresh investment proposed in November 2009. In all, 40 new power generation projects were announced in November 2009.

These projects intend to add 18,800 MW of new generation capacity. Bulk of the new investment was found in the thermal power sector.

Universal Success Enterprises' 2,000 MW coal based power unit (Phase I) at Bhogat Port, Bhadbhadiya in Jamnagar district of Gujarat with an investment of Rs 11,000 crore was the largest project during the month. The second largest project was announced by Nuclear Power Corpn. NPCIL intends to set up a 1,000 MWe nuclear power unit (Phase I) at Mithivirdi in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore. Apart from these, following major projects were announced during the month:

A couple of mega Cement, Steel and Automobiles projects saw total fresh investment announcement in Manufacturing surge by over 250 per cent during November as compared to October statistics.

Among the 19 cement projects announced during the month, seven were by the Uttar Pradesh based Eco Cement. The company plans to set up seven cement plants of one million tonne each in seven different districts of Madhya Pradesh. Jaiprakash Associates also announced to set up cement units at Sonbhadra and Bulandshahr districts of Uttar Pradesh each with a capacity of one million tpa and three million tpa at Kheda in Gujarat.

Arcelor-Mittal India, which proposes to set up two mega steel projects in Orissa and Jharkhand, announced its intentions to set up a six million tpa steel plant supported by a 750 MW coal based power project in Karnataka. The company seems to be eager to set up the Karnataka project as both Orissa and Jharkhand projects have not made much progress since their announcement.

In the Automobiles sector, Jindal Rail Infrastructure and Eastern Railways announced two large size investment proposals. While Jindal Rail proposes to set up a railway wagons unit in Vadodara district of Gujarat, with an investment of Rs 2,700 crore, Eastern Railways has drawn up plans to set up a rail coach factory at Kanchrapara in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, with an investment of Rs 900 crore.

In the Services & Utilities sector, 182 Roadways, 30 Water Supply Schemes, 4 Shipping Infrastructural and 37 Other Community Services (Hostels, Parks, School & College buildings etc.) were announced during the month.

The National Highways Authority of India continuing its intentions to set up highways at increased pace, announced 11 new projects worth Rs 7,763 crore during November. Out of these, the following two were of mega size:

The Construction sector saw announcement of 33 new commercial complexes and shopping malls, 24 Hotels, 10 Hospitals and 60 Real Estate projects. Of the 10 Hospitals, the most ambitious one was Employees' State Insurance Corpn's medical college and hospital at Kollam district of Kerala with an investment of Rs 333 crore. Of the 24 hotels, six 5- Star Hotels were of Duet India Hotels to come up at Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bangalore, Nashik and Lucknow with an aggregate capacity of 1,077 rooms. In the Real Estate sector, Prajay Engineers Syndicate's residential complex 'Mega Polis' at Hitech City in Hyderabad district of Andhra Pradesh was the largest project announced in November. The complex to be spread over 21 acres of land, comprises 23 towers of G+18 and G+19 floors with 3,000 apartments equipped with modern amenities.

The month also saw announcement of the following two SEZs:

After a gap of several months, the Port sector saw a mega project being announced. Universal Success Enterprises intends to develop a port at Bhogat, Bhadbhadiya in Jamnagar district of Gujarat at a total investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

The mining sector saw announcement of 10 projects, of this the largest project was Bharat Coking Coal's five million tpa coal handling plant in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.