Guwahati, 25 Feb

Reliance Industries will invest Rs 50,000 crore across five different verticals, including nuclear energy and hospitality sector, in Assam over the next five years, its chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the 'Advantage Assam' business summit, Ambani said the money will be invested to make Assam technology and AI ready.

"At the 2018 investment summit, I announced an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. Since then, the investments have crossed Rs 12,000 crore. This amount will quadruple and we will invest Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years," he said.

The areas where this amount will be pumped in include green and nuclear energy, the supply chain of food and non-food products, and expanding the footprint of Reliance's retail stores, he added.

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's thrust to develop the Northeast, Ambani said, "You have brought Assam and the rest of Northeast from the periphery to the centre of India's developmental map. You have yourself visited the region over 70 times -- more than any other PM in the past."

He said that Assam has the potential to develop so fast that South East Asia and East Asia will begin to look westwards towards the Indian state as the land of growth opportunities.

Recalling his meeting with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Mumbai, Ambani said the CM's words convinced him that the future of Assam is bold and extraordinary.

"And I said to myself -- when Assam is setting such an ambitious goal for itself, how can Reliance in the industry stay behind?" the business tycoon said.

Elaborating on the five areas of future investments in Assam, he said that Reliance's first priority is to make Assam tech-ready and AI-ready.

"For us, Assam's digital transformation is a noble and patriotic mission. Jio has made Assam not only 2G-mukt but 5G-yukt. We are very grateful for the people of Assam to adopt Jio with their heart. After building world-class connectivity infrastructure, we will now install high-performance computing infrastructure," he added.

Ambani said that the second priority of the company is to make Assam a hub of clean and green energy, including nuclear energy in line with the government's new policy to invite private participation in the nuclear industry.

"Reliance will build two world-class hubs of Compressed Biogas (CBG) over wastelands in Assam. This will produce 8 lakh tonnes of clean biogas annually, enough to fuel 2 lakh passenger cars every day," he added.

The diversified conglomerate's third investment priority will be to help Assam become a major supplier of food and non-food consumer products to national and international markets, Ambani said.

"We will set up a mega food park, which will add value to the abundant agricultural and horticultural produce of Assam. We have already set up a world-class bottling plant in Assam for our Campa Cola and packaged drinking water," he added.

Reliance Industries will also put in money to double the number of its retail stores in the state from existing 400 to 800 outlets in the next five years, the group chairman said.

"Our fifth priority is to boost the high-end hotel and hospitality economy in Assam. Reliance will build a luxurious, seven-star Oberoi hotel in the heart of Assam," he added.

Ambani stressed that these five major initiatives will also create tens of thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities for the youth in Assam.

He also announced a host of initiatives in the CSR segment by the Reliance Foundation.

"Assam has a rich heritage of arts and crafts. It is one of the largest producers of bamboo, which is called 'Green Gold'. Sualkuchi, the centre of Assam's famous silk industry, has the potential to grow manifold in the generation of incomes and jobs.

"Reliance Foundation, together with our 'Swadesh' stores, would like to collaborate with the state government to promote this heritage," Ambani said.

He stressed that the possibilities for Assam are limitless and Reliance will continue to remain a "proud and dependable partner" in this journey.