Vijayawada, Jan 30 (Reporter) The third meeting of the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) on Thursday approved 15 projects worth Rs 44,776 crore in Andhra Pradesh. The 15 projects that the SIPB approved today are mainly with regard to renewable energy and food processing sectors, following which the total value of investments till now cleared by the board crossed Rs 3 lakh crore. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who chaired the SIPB meeting held at the State Secretariat directed the officials to clear all the necessary permissions and take steps to see to it that these projects are grounded at the earliest possible. Already permissions have been granted for projects like ArcelorMittal which is going to set up its units with an investment of Rs 1.36 lakh crore, NTPC, HPCL and the BPCL which is investing Rs 96,000 crore for setting up its unit in the State. All these projects will be grounded in a couple of months. With the policies that have been adopted by the State Government in the past seven months along with the cooperation being extended to the companies, the investments are progressing well in the State. The SIPB at its first meeting approved the investments worth Rs 83,987 crore while at the second meeting Rs 1,82,162 crore and in the third meeting held on Thursday the board gave its consent for another Rs 44,776 crore. With the 15 projects that got approval today 19,580 jobs will be created. In fact in the past seven months after the TDP-led NDA came to power, the SIPB approved for projects worth a total of Rs 3,10,925 crore to generate 3,12,576 jobs. Naidu at the meeting ordered the officials to regularly monitor the developments and take measures to see to it that the investments take shape at the earliest possible, particularly those who are investing Rs 10 crore and above. At a time when the competition is very heavy, the Chief Minister made it clear that the officials should clearly implement the Speed of Doing Business to get positive results. He directed the Chief Secretary to hold regular review meetings to get permissions at State-level and with the district collectors on the progress of the work at ground-level. As organisations like the DP World of Dubai and the AP Moller Maersk of Denmark have evinced keen interest in Davos to invest in the State, the officials should hold consultations with these companies and closely coordinate with them, Naidu said. He also wanted the officials to focus on tourism projects too to achieve at least 20 percent progress in this sector. The Chief Minister said that a State-level convener be appointed to closely monitor the progress from the grassroot to the State level to oversee the granting of necessary permissions and to deal with the problems at the ground-level...////...