Twitter
Advertisement

Raje distils Refinery dream after bringing Ring Road on track

On both the occasions, she used her personal rapport with union ministers to garner central government support for realising these ‘complicated’ projects.

Latest News
article-main
Vasundhara Raje, Dharmendra Pradhan and Nitin Gadkari
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

This month of August is proving august month for Rajasthan. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje is busy bringing all her dream projects on ground. A couple of days back, NHAI signed an MoU with JDA for laying the impending ring road promising a 15-month disposal to a 15- year-old concept. Now, her government has signed yet another ambitious MoU with HPCL for a refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in remote area of Pachpadra in Barmer, which is going to change the entire socio-economic dynamics of the state. The project will pump in a total investment of Rs. 43,129 crore while Cairn Energy would investment another Rs 27,000 crore in next four years to increase oil production. 

On both the occasions, she used her personal rapport with union ministers to garner central government support for realising these ‘complicated’ projects. In case of Ring Road, union road minister Nitin Gadkari mobilised his road agency NHAI while union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan ironed out all problems blocking the HPCL MoU.   

With this Raje has silenced her detractors and opposition who were labelling these projects as mere poll gimmicks. The chief minister, with this single stroke, has been successful in conveying people that her government is serious in translating promises into action. 

The Barmer refinery, which has been in prevalence since Raje’s last tenure, has seen several see-saw rides in last 10 years. It was her government in 2007, which showed serious intent towards setting up a refinery in association with ONGC. She had then appointed former chairman-cum-managing director of ONGC Mr. Subir Raha as a consultant to draw a plan for 7.5MMPTA refinery in Barmer. However, the talks with ONGC could not find any conclusion. ONGC had then demanded the state government to provide free of cost land, exemption from entry tax and sales tax/VAT deferment for 16 years. Other concessions it had sought include CST exemption and right of way for rail link.

The state government had found the demands unrealistic. “The refinery is worth Rs.12000 crore while the concessions sought were worth Rs.21000 crore,” the then mines minister had said.

Later, Congress came into power and the project lost steam till election year (2013) when the then chief minister Ashok Gehlot processed an MoU with HPCL to establish a Refinery-cum-Petrochemical Complex in Barmer in 2013. As per this, Rajasthan was given 26% partnership in the project with the viability gap funding (VGF) payment worth Rs. 60,000.Before the MoU could materialise, again government changed and Raje came back into power.

Dismissing the previous MoU as non feasible, the BJP government re-negotiated the agreement and redesigned it to save Rs. 40,000 crore towards the economic burden on the state government. Also, the earlier 2% Return of Investment for the state government has now been increased by 6 times to 12%, making it a viable economic venture in the state.​

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement