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Stone Story: Dharmendra Pradhan clears air on oil refinery

Petroleum minister turns down Congress' claim of laying foundation stone first

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Dharmendra Pradhan addressed a PC and gave a comparative status as compared to 2013 regarding the Barmer oil refinery when Congress was in power in the state.
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As the date of foundation stone laying ceremony of Barmer oil refinery is nearing, the politics on it is getting heated up.

Dharmendra Pradhan, union petroleum and natural gas minister, on Tuesday,  addressed a press conference and gave a comparative status as compared to 2013 regarding the Barmer oil refinery when Congress was in power in the state .

He informed that in 2013, the foundation stone was laid by then Congress president Sonia Gandhi on 22.09.2013 at Pachpadra , Barmer, just prior to the imposition of model code of conduct on 27.09.2013.  The 4800 acre land was allotted to the project without any lease deed being executed , hence the surface right of the land was in the papers only .

Even the environmental clearance to the project was not obtained.  There was no physical activities on the ground in 2013.

All this displayed lack of due diligence on the part of the then state government .

Pradhan said that with the NDA government at the centre, genuine and earnest efforts were made by the state government with the intervention of ministry of petroleum and natural gas , government of India and project was renegotiated on better and advantageous financial terms and conditions .

He gave the details and said that earlier IRR of the project was 6.32 and now it has been improved to 12.2 %.

This has resulted in reducing the financial burden on the state government from Rs 56,040 crore to Rs 16845 crore resulting in saving of Rs 40,000 crore to the state exchequer. 

Cost of the land to tune of Rs 188.80 crore has been adjusted against the upfront equity of government of Rajasthan in the project.

He categorically mentioned that it was decided to start physical activities at the project site before the formal ground breaking ceremony and stressed that this is being done as not to repeat the mistake committed by the then state government of launching the project only on paper, hinting about the Congress government.

He said that all the clearances have already been obtained expeditiously like environmental clearance from ministry of environment and forest, approval of government of India for the revised project, execution of lease deed of allotted land of 4567.32 acres for the refinery plant . He said that 250 acre land has been allotted for development of marketing terminal at Pachpadra.

Pradhan mentioned that earlier refinery was designed for BS-III fuel while now the refinery will make latest BS-VI fuel.

He said that a pipeline from coastal Gujarat will be laid down to Barmer for importing crude which can be refined at the refinery in Barmer .

Earlier on January 6, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot had opposed the upcoming foundation laying ceremony by the Prime Minister saying it had already been performed four years ago.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi few days ago, Gehlot said former Congress president Sonia Gandhi had laid the foundation stone of the refinery in September 22, 2013.

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