TOI | Will try for 20MMT refinery at Chandrapur: Petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Sep 24,2022

Further strengthening the case for having a petroleum refinery in Vidarbha, as demanded by industry associations from the region, Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh said on Thursday that he would try his best to see a 20 million metric tonne (MMT) capacity refinery comes up in Chandrapur district.

This was following the minister’s statement last week in which he was quoted by media as saying that he plans to revive the 60 MMT Ratnagiri refinery project. The project could not take off during the previous regime in Maharashtra, due to delayed land acquisition, Puri had said.

“Now that the BJP is back in power in Maharashtra, the project is going to be reclaimed,” he said during his maiden visit to Chandrapur. The Ratnagiri refinery was planned by a combine of three PSUs — IOC, HPCL and BPCL.

However, instead of establishing one 60 MMT refinery, three units of 20 MMT each can be set up at different places, said the Union minister. “Vidarbha is rich in minerals and establishing a refinery having 20 MMT capacity at Chandrapur is worth considering,” he stated.

The BJP has named Puri as in-charge of Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituency to strengthen the party base keeping in mind that it had lost from there in the last elections.

The proposal to have a refinery was mooted by local industry associations, which met him during his visit. Prior to it, a delegation from Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED), which is demanding that a refinery and petrochemical complex should be set up in the region, had also met Puri.

VED’s strategist Pradeep Maheshwari has been mooting that the refinery and petrochemical complex can come up at Kuhi where land for national investment and manufacturing zone (NIMS) was earmarked.

Soon after the meet, Maheshwari tweeted that he had a meet with the minister whom he could convince about the refinery in Vidarbha. Maheshwari’s tweet was retweeted by Puri.

Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, VED said a refinery even at Chandrapur would be beneficial for the region. The country has a total refining capacity of 235 MMT, which the central government aims to take up to 400 MMT by 2035, Maheshwari quoted Puri as saying.

VED is also pushing the case for having a petrochemical complex along with the refinery. This will develop industries using downstream projects as raw material.

VED’s argument is that having a refinery in central location like Vidarbha would reduce the cost of transporting final product to different consumption centres. This benefit would be more than the cost of bringing crude through pipelines to the refinery.

Later, Puri, accompanied by Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, visited Ballarpur and had lunch with a dalit labourer Ramhit Varma, a beneficiary of free toilet and free ration schemes of the central government.

Varma, a native of a Kafalarpurva hamlet in Banda district of who had migrated 40 years back to Ballarpur in search of employment, works as labourer engaged to lift grain bags at a grocery shop.

Puri also interacted with other beneficiaries of different central schemes at a programme organised by the local unit of the BJP.