Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar: A consortium headed by Greenko Group, one of India's fastest growing independent power producers, has proposed to set up an 'Energy and Oil City' at Sonepur in south Orissa's Ganjam district at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore.

The projects that would come up on this 'Energy and Oil City' are a port, a shipbuilding unit, a 1000 MW gas-based power plant, a desalination plant with a capacity of 120 million litres per day and a modern township for accommodating 10,000 people.

Besides, the consortium would also create infrastructure for setting up of a petrochemical complex.

The Oil City project when fully commissioned would create direct jobs for 20,000 people besides generating indirect employment avenues for over one lakh others.

The proposal for the Oil City project was submitted to the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday by S K Chalamsethy, director of Sonepur Energy and Oil Ltd, a special purpose vehicle formed by the consortium. The state Chief Secretary T K Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Bijay Pattnaik, industries secretary Saurabh Garg, energy secretary P K Jena and other senior officials were present at the meeting.

An Energy Academy would also be set up for generation of technical knowhow in the energy and oil sectors and to help create infrastructure for port, power plant, desalination plant and township.

The academy would impart training to engineers, geologists, geophysicists, drilling engineers and fabricators in association with globally reputed oil companies.

This academy would be set up a cost of Rs 100 crore.

Company officials stated that being located between the Krishna Godavari basin and Mahanadi basin, south Orissa has tremendous potential to attract huge investments in the oil and gas sector and can emerge as a major hydrocarbon hub of South-East Asia.