Amaravati, Jan 31 : Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) on Thursday approved 15 projects involving an investment of Rs.44,776 crore.

The approval was given at the third meeting of SIPB chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

These 15 projects are expected to create 19,580 jobs.

The projects cleared by SIPB on Thursday mainly pertain to renewable energy and food processing sectors.

With this, the total value of investments cleared by SIPB during the last seven months crossed Rs 3 lakh crore.

The Chief Minister directed officials to clear all the necessary permissions and take steps to ensure that these projects are grounded as soon as possible.

With the investment-friendly policies adopted by the state government in the past seven months, the state is attracting huge investments.

The SIPB has approved projects worth Rs 3,10,925 crore to generate 3,12,576 jobs since the Telugu Desam Party-led NDA came to power in the state seven months ago.

The SIPB at its first meeting approved investments worth Rs 83,987 crore while at the second meeting cleared projects worth Rs 1,82,162 crore.

Chief Minister Naidu at Thursday's meeting directed the officials to regularly monitor the developments and take measures to ensure that the investments take shape at the earliest possible, particularly those who are investing Rs 10 crore and above.

Stating that there is tough competition, the Chief Minister asked the officials to implement the Speed of Doing Business to get positive results.

He directed the Chief Secretary K. Vijayanand to hold regular review meetings to get permissions at the state level.

The Chief Secretary was also asked to hold review meetings with the district collectors on the progress of the work at ground level.

Chief Minister Naidu said that a state-level convener will be appointed to closely monitor the progress from the grassroots to the state level, to oversee the granting of necessary permissions, and also to deal with the problems at the ground level.

He also wanted the officials to focus on tourism projects to achieve at least 20 per cent progress in this sector.

/IANS