The Rs 41,850 crore fresh investment proposals announced by Reliance Industries in September 2010 helped in maintaining the upward push seen in startups since August 2010. The month also saw record number of 1,077 startups being announced. This was the highest number of new project intentions announced in the current fiscal so far. In all, the month saw 1,077 project startups announced with a total investment of Rs 75,202 crore.

The Manufacturing sector, including the three mega Reliance Industries projects, attracted 149 startups worth Rs 33,176 crore and accounted for 44 per cent of the total fresh investment emanated in September 2010. The Services & Utilities sector followed with Rs 24,723 crore investment proposals and accounted for around one-third of the fresh investment.

Reliance Industries announced four mega projects during the months. The company intends to set up a Rs 16,000 crore cracker unit to produce ethylene, propylene, low-density polyethylene and monoethylene glycol; a Rs 15,000 crore coke gasification plant; a Rs 6,850 crore Paraxylene plant and a Rs 4,000 crore Butyl rubber plant. All the above projects will be housed in Jamnagar, Gujarat, and are expected to come up by 2014.

Some other notable projects announced in the Manufacturing sector in September 2010 A Rs 310 crore crystal sugar project (5,000 tccpd) of Bhalkeshwar Sugars at Bajolaga village in Bidar district of Karnataka.

Abhishek Industries' expansion of cotton spinning capacity from 1,29,648 spindles to 1,94,928 spindles at Sanghera in Sangrur district of Punjab. Two cement projects of the Jaypee Group in Himachal Pradesh - one, a clinker unit with a capacity of 2.75 million tpa at Baga in Solan district, and the other, a cement grinding unit with a capacity of 1.5 million tpa at Malokhar in Bilaspur district.

Surjagarh Steel & Mines structural steel unit with a capacity of 1.5 million tpa at MIDC area in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

Two piston engines manufacturing units of Harita Fehrer- one with a capacity of 12 lakh numbers per annum at Shirur in Pune district of Maharashtra and the other with capacity of 107.02 lakh numbers per annum at Hosur Thally Road in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.

The Services and Utilities sector saw 764 fresh projects announced at an investment of Rs 24,723 crore in September 2010 as compared to 562 new startups worth Rs 10,897 crore announced in August 2010. The notable projects in the Roadways sector was the NHAI's four/six-laning of Raipur-Bilaspur section from 0.00 km to 125.2 km on NH-200 in Chhattisgarh on BOT (Toll) basis under NHDP-IV at an investment of Rs 1,507 crore and four-laning of Shahganj Junction-Budhni-Betul section of NH-69 from 27.200 km to 137.000 km in Madhya Pradesh (Package-II) on DBFOT (Toll) basis under NHDPPhase IV with an investment of Rs 1,217 crore.

In the Real Estate sector, the Jaipur Development Authority announced the redevelopment of Jawahar Nagar Katchi Basti at Jawahar Nagar Byepass in Jaipur district of Rajasthan under Slum Development Policy - 2010 on PPP basis. The project will spread over 100 acre and comprise 10,000 houses with various modern amenities.

In the Airways Sector, KGS Aranmula Airport, a JV between KGS Developers, Aranmula Aviation and KINFRA announced its intentions to develop an international greenfield airport (Phase I) at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala at an investment of Rs 400 crore. The AAI has completed about 40 per cent work on new airport at Khajuraho in Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh

During September 2010, in all 84 projects were announced in the Power Sector at an investment of Rs 1,327 crore. While majority of these projects are still in planning stage, 12 projects have already entered the execution stage including Lanco Infratech's 1,320 MW coal based power project at Amarkantak in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh.

Some of the major power projects announced during the month

While the mining sector saw a Rs 15,000 crore Coke gasification project by Reliance Industries, the Irrigation Sector saw Madhya Pradesh Government announcing 32 new irrigation projects.

The Hotels Sector saw 24 new startups being announced as against the 11 fresh projects announced in August 2010. Majority of them did not disclose their investment intentions in the respective projects. The Amrapali Group is taking up various hotel projects in three star and five star segments in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The SEZ Sector garnered Rs 9,794 crore of fresh investment during September 2010 after experiencing lull for the past two months. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation proposes to develop seven SEZ projects across the state. Of this, two are multi-product SEZs - one, at Sinner in Nashik spread across 1,000 ha, and the other, at Gandheli in Aurangabad over 2,500 ha.