New Delhi, Jul 4 (IANS): The union cabinet Wednesday approved the setting up a Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu that is expected to attract investments of Rs.92,160 crore.

The project was proposed by the state government. It will be developed in the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

The project includes committed investment of Rs.22,160 crore, according to an official statement released after the cabinet meeting here.

The PCPIR envisages development of roads, rail, air links, ports, water supply, power and desalination plant at a total cost of Rs.13,354 crore.

This PCPIR will be the fifth, after those in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal.

The project in the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu will cover an area of 256.83 square km with a processing area of 104 square km. The rest would be for non-processing activities such as residential, commercial and social infrastructure.

Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Limited, a joint venture of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation and Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited, has been identified as one of the "anchor tenants" for the investment region.

Nagarjuna Oil is setting up a 6 million tonnes per annum refinery project at Cuddalore at a total cost of Rs.9,660 crore. The project activities have commenced and the target date of completion of refinery is September 2013.

The second anchor tenant is Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, which is planning to establish an integrated 15 million tonnes per year capacity refinery-cum-petrochemical complex.

It will have a grassroot refinery along with ethylene cracker, downstream derivative units as well as aromatic complex Para-Xylene. The project is designed for production of 1.2 MMTPA of Ethylene. It envisages an investment of Rs.40,000 crore beyond 2015.