Vedanta Group on Friday announced an investment of Rs 80,000 crore in the north-east region, targeting energy and infrastructure development across key sectors including oil and gas, critical minerals, refining facilities, power, optical fibre, system integration, renewable energy, transmission, and data centres.
This investment includes one of the largest exploration and development programmes in the hydrocarbons sector in the region. At the Rising Northeast Investors Summit 2025, Vedanta revealed plans to infuse an additional Rs 30,000 crore across Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. This follows a prior announcement earlier this year of a Rs 50,000 crore investment in Assam.
“Today, the states of the north-east are growing in double digits. The opportunities are growing even faster. The private sector is ready to be a partner for prosperity. Vedanta is fully committed to investment in the region which has the most amazing natural resources potential, from oil and gas to critical minerals and an exceptional pool of talented human resources,” said Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta Group.
Assam holds nearly 27% of India’s crude oil reserves. Vedanta’s subsidiary, Cairn Oil & Gas, has been producing from the Hazarigaon field—the first Discovered Small Field (DSF) block to go into production in the Northeast.
Cairn Oil & Gas also plans to invest $3–4 billion over the next three to four years in upstream operations to expand its business and drive growth, company’s chief financial officer Hitesh Vaid told FE.
In addition to existing producing blocks in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, the company is now turning its focus to the north-east, which it sees as a region with vast untapped potential.
“North-east is also a big opportunity for us where we have identified a lot of blocks. We are producing from a small area in Hazarigaon, but we think that in our onshore portfolio this is the place where the biggest value creation could happen,” Vaid said. Cairn expects at least two to three wells in the region to begin production in FY26.
Vedanta has also secured vanadium and graphite mineral blocks in Arunachal Pradesh through recent government-led critical mineral auctions. The state hosts India’s largest graphite reserves, along with substantial deposits of vanadium and rare earth elements, and accounts for nearly 40% of the country’s hydropower potential.
“Once explored, these critical mineral blocks will provide vital raw materials to India’s hi-tech manufacturing and clean energy sectors. Nagaland, Tripura, and Meghalaya also have immense natural resources that can be responsibly harnessed for the growth of the region and the country,” the company stated.
Vedanta and its sister entities have also invested in the commissioning of a 300 circuit kilometer transmission system network which allows transfer of 1,000 MW power from Assam to Meghalaya.
The Group – present across a range of energy related business – has earlier announced its plan to demerge its business units into independent “pure play” companies to unlock value and attract investment into the expansion and growth of each of the businesses.