Now, the country’s biggest 9-tonne refinery to be set up in Pachpadra of Barmer (Rajasthan). Recently, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) gave environmental clearance to Barmer refinery. The construction of boundary wall will begin in 4,500 acres of land. On 18 April 2017, HPCL and the state government had signed an agreement to build the refinery at Pachpadra in Barmer district. It is to be mentioned that HPCL has 74% and state government has 26% stake in this project. This refinery-cumpetrochemical complex will be ready by 2021.
Refineries in India
With the 9 million tonne per annum capacity, Rajasthan will be the biggest refinery. The HPCL refinery at Mumbai has capacity of 7.5million tonne per annum while Vishakapatanam has 8.3 million tone capacity.
India is one of the largest importers of oil in the world. In India, there are hundreds of oil refineries but Jamnagar Refinery is the largest Oil Refinery. Other major refineries are Essar Refinery in Gujarat, Mangalore Refinery in Karnataka, Mathura Refinery in Uttar Pradesh, Bina Refinery in Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai Refinery in Maharashtra and many more. Now, this HPCL Rajasthan refinery will be a new achievement.
Apart from imported crude oil, Pachpadra refinery will be able to process local crude from Vedanta Ltd’s Barmer oil field. Of the 9 mtpa capacity, two mtpa will house the petrochemicals complex. The state has allotted 4,800 acres for the refinery, which was conceived in 2012-13.
With the joint efforts of HPCL and government of Rajasthan, refinery is being made. For environmental clearance, applications had been sent to NGT. After checking all documents the clearance was given for this refinery, said Barmer district collector Shiv Prasad Nakate.
NGT
In 2010, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) was established by the National Green Tribunal Act. It is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues. It was set up to handle cases and speed up proceedings of cases related to environmental issues.
Present development in Project
Mr. Shiv Prasad Nakate further said that the work of building boundary wall will start from next week and tender process has been completed. Strict security arrangements have been made for the boundary wall works. HPCL has asked for 625 bighas of land for marketing and commercial operation for which allotment process has been started and file has been sent to the state government.
The diesel produced here will be BS 6 standard. Rs 43,000 crore will be spent on the refinery and HPCL in next 5 years will invest Rs 61,000 crore so that capacity of refinery could be increased to 50 million tonne, which will be the second oil refinery after Indian Oil in the country.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone for HPCL refinery and petrochemical complex at Pachpadra in Barmer district. The refinery has a capacity of 9 million metric tonnes, will generate Rs 878,000 crore in income and provide employment to 140,000 people. After the setting up of refinery in Rajasthan, CM of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje expressed the hope that in coming five to ten years the whole scenario in western Rajasthan will witness a drastic change.
