Gautam Adani-led Adani Group has pledged to invest Rs 20,000 crore in the establishment of an ultra-supercritical thermal power plant in Bihar, alongside its plans to expand its operations in cement, food processing, and logistics in the state.Speaking at the Bihar Business Connect 2024 summit, Pranav Adani, Director of Adani Enterprises Ltd., outlined the group’s ongoing and future investments in Bihar. He noted that the conglomerate is already involved in three key sectors—logistics, gas distribution, and agri logistics—with an investment of Rs 850 crore to date."We are now going to invest another Rs 2,300 crore in these sectors. This investment will not only massively increase our warehousing and handling capacity but will also expand our presence in the EV, city gas distribution (CGD), and compressed biogas (CBG) space," Adani said. "Additionally, it will generate 27,000 direct and indirect local job opportunities."The group is also looking to invest up to Rs 1,000 crore in developing strategic infrastructure in the state, including Gati Shakti Railway Terminals, Inland Container Depots (ICDs), and Industrial Warehousing Parks.Adani also said that the group's focus in the state is on smart meter manufacturing as Bihar moves toward automating its power consumption monitoring. "We will invest Rs 2,100 crore to manufacture and install over 28 lakh smart meters in cities like Siwan, Gopalganj, Vaishali, Saran, and Samastipur, which will generate at least 4,000 local jobs in this technology segment," said Puneet Adani.The group’s cement plants in Bihar will also undergo expansion, increasing capacity to 10 million tonnes per annum with an investment of Rs 2,500 crore across multiple phases.In addition, Adani announced plans to invest Rs 20,000 crore in the state's energy sector, specifically in the construction of a supercritical thermal power plant. "We expect this massive project to create at least 12,000 job vacancies in the pre-commissioning phase and generate 1,500 skilled jobs during the operational phase," he added.(With inputs from PTI)