Billionaire Gautam Adani announced over Rs 55,000 crore investment in next five years in a clutch of projects in Gujarat including the world’s largest solar park, a copper plant, a cement unit, and a lithium battery manufacturing complex, envisaging direct employment to 50,000 people.

Adani Group, which operates Mundra port in the state, announced plans to foray into petrochemical business with a Rs 16,000 crore project with German chemical major BASF.

Speaking at the 9th Vibrant Gujarat Summit here, Adani said his group’s investments in Gujarat in the past five years exceed Rs 50,000 crores and “we are further accelerating our investments.”

“Over the next 5 years, our investments will include the world’s largest solar hybrid park in Khavda. The anticipated investment in this park is Rs 30,000 crore. We also plan to establish a 1 GW Data Center Park in Mundra, a one million ton copper smelting and refining project, a cement and clinker manufacturing unit in Lakhpat, an integrated Lithium battery manufacturing complex and expand our Photovoltaic manufacturing capabilities. Overall, we anticipate a total of Rs 55,000 crore of investment in all these projects,” he said.

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The Dai Viet-Dung Quat cement plant has been forced to temporarily shut down in the central province of Quang Ngai due to environmental pollution. Since 26 May, the locals had gathered in front of the plant to call for a shutdown.

Director of Central Region Cement JSC Trinh Van Dien, investor in the Dai Viet-Dung Quat cement plant, said, “We invited an environmental monitoring team to check the dust concentration and the results are safe. The local Department of Natural Resources and Environment hasn?t reached a conclusion on the noise level yet.”

He added, “We?ve had to temporarily close the plant, meaning we”re losing VND300m (US$13,437) and the 100 workers are kicking their heels at home. I don”t know what to do.”

The ground clearance work should have been done this year but the coal-powered plant project was delayed until 2020. As a result, the ground clearance work has also been delayed.

According to the locals, they want to be compensated for the relocation if the plant stays. “We don?t want to stay. We have to move,” local Nguyen Ne said.

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For the second year in a row, Delhi Airport has received top ranking worldwide among airports handling around 40 million passengers annually, according to a recent survey. The ranking is done by an independent international agency, Airports Council International.

The airport?s efficiency also has improved as 78 aircraft can now land and take off in an hour during peak traffic from 38 aircraft movement earlier. And despite being one of the busiest airports in the world, on time performance has improved to 82 per cent, double of what it was 10 years ago.