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Work on Bathinda refinery starts
PM News Bureau
Work on the much-delayed 9 mtpa Bathinda refinery has finally started. The project, which was announced in 1995, was delayed mainly because of political upheavals. Fortunes of the project changed with every new government at the state level. In 1998, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone.
The refinery will be implemented by Guru Gobind Singh Refineries Ltd, a subsidiary of HPCL. HPCL is scouting for a partner for this company and is reportedly in dialogue with foreign companies like BP, Armco and Total. Both HPCL and the foreign partner will have 26 per cent stake each and the balance will be given to the public.
The project is estimated to cost Rs 9,806 crore and, in addition, Rs 2,500 crore will be spent on a pipeline from the crude oil terminal at Mundra, Gujarat, to the refinery site. A petrochemical complex is also planned to make use of the naphtha generated by the refinery. The pipeline is to be ready by March 2007, and the refinery is likely to go on stream in 2008-09.
[15 August 2005]
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