In March 2008, ProjectsToday monitored 712 new projects involving a total investment of Rs.87,930 crore. Our monitoring indicates that the dominance of the manufacturing sector offered in the last one year continued in March 2008 also. The sector alone accounted for 76 per cent of the total fresh investment announced in the month.

Of the several mega projects announced in March 2008 the communist ruled state, West Bengal garnered maximum investment under its name, nearly cornering 50 per cent of the total fresh investment announced in the month. Among the 44 projects, the state attracted, three were of mega size. Vedanta Alumina signed an agreement with the state government to set up Rs.20,000 crore, 6.5 lakh tpa aluminium smelter plant supported by 3,000 MW thermal based power plant. CALS Refineries signed an MoU with the Haldia Development Authority (HDA) and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for setting up a 20 mln tpa capacity refinery of which, two refineries in Haldia with a capacity of 5 mln tpa each and 10 mln tpa at Nayachar at an estimated cost of Rs.20,000 crore. The Maharashtra based forging giant, Bharat Forge put forth its proposal to set up a one million tpa steel plant with thermal based power plant of 500 MW in West Bengal.

The Cement industry saw the announcement of 11 new projects with a total investment of Rs.2,544 crore. Among which Birla Corporation's 3 mln tpa cement plant along with 2 mln tpa clinker unit at Satna in Madhya Pradesh was the largest project involving an investment of Rs.1,200 crore.

Of the 33 new power projects announced in March 2008, 16 were thermal, 13 were wind, solar and bagasse based and the remaining were hydel power plants. Among the new power projects, the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam announced the largest project. The Nigam proposes to set up a 4,000 MW coal based power unit in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. In private sector, Wardha Power, a subsidiary of KSK Energy Ventures Ltd. invited bids to set up a thermal based power unit with a capacity of 2x1,800 MW in Chhattisgarh under turnkey basis. Jindal India Thermal Power announced a coal based power unit with a capacity of 2,000 MW in Madhya Pradesh. Krishak Bharati Co-Op. in joint venture with Bihar State Electricity Board plans to set up a coal based power unit with a capacity of 1,000 MW in Bihar. In all, the 33 projects together will have a generation capacity of 17,836 MW.

During March 2008, ProjectsToday also gathered information on ten new IT SEZs:

In the construction sector, around 49 new commercial complexes and shopping malls were announced across India. In addition, ProjectsToday also collected information on 148 Real Estate projects, which were at different stages of their development. Among the large scale Real Estate projects announced in March 2008, the largest was Splendor Landbase's integrated township 'Splendor City' at NH-1 in Amritsar district of Punjab being developed over 145 acres of land, comprises commercial zone, office complex, malls and multiplex with various modern amenities.

Of the total projects announced during March 2008, 244 projects entailing a total investment of Rs.11,086 crore were by the state and Central government agencies. Private entities accounted for the balance 468 projects worth Rs.76,844 crore.