New Delhi: Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on February 26, wrote a letter to Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers DV Sadanand Gowda and Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways & Chemicals & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya seeking their personal intervention in leasing out 175 acres of land for undertaking expansion work for Indian Oil's Haldia refinery.
In his letter, Pradhan stressed the continued endeavour to be self-reliant in petroleum products and wrote that infrastructure development in the oil and gas sector is driven to expand its facilities to meet the domestic demands of quality and quantity of fuels and specialities. He wrote about the Haldia Refinery's increased crude processing capacity from 2.5 MMTPA initially to 8 MMTPA and the capacity to produce the best quality of fuels, lubricants and speciality products.
He further wrote that in recent times when the refinery was required to construct new units for the Bharat Stage VI standards, this could only be partially accomplished by dismantling existing storage tanks, and for construction of some critical units, additional land is required. Adjacent 175 acres of land in possession of Hindustan Fertilizers Corporation Limited on lease from Kolkata Port Trust / Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust. Indian Oil has been in constant touch with SMP-HDC authorities and HFCL to acquire this land parcel.
Pradhan solicited the support of both Ministers to enable Indian Oil to establish its critical units of the refinery for the benefit of people and boost the Purvodaya vision.
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