NRL signs MoU with Inland Waterways for cargo transportation

New Delhi: Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has signed an MoU with the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) on Thursday for 'Transportation of Over-Dimensional Cargo and Project Cargo of Numaligarh Refinery Using Inland Water Transport.' IWAI Director (NER) P Srinivasan and NRL's Senior Chief General Manager (Projects) AP Chakraborty signed the MoU.

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli also attended the ceremony held at Kunjakanan-NRL Township virtually.

The MoU will pave the way for making rivers navigable throughout the year by IWAI and assist in bringing the large cargoes and capital equipment including single piece prefabricated process plants for refinery expansion projects. Also, it will open up trade and commerce as outward freight movement in a large consignment will be possible from river Dhansiri, adjoining the Refinery in the future.

As part of the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 of the government, NRL has embarked on a major refinery expansion project to treble its existing refining capacity from 3 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA. As part of the project, over 1,000 pieces of equipment shall be transported from across the country and abroad. Several of the equipment shall fall under the category of Over Dimensional Consignment (ODC) and Over Weight Consignment (OWC).

NRL intends to implement multimodal transportation through roads and waterways to secure the delivery of the equipment. Due to various limitations in road transportation, the sea and riverine routes shall be leveraged to connect the major ports in the western region of the nation to the Northeast region up to NRL.

As part of the transportation process, NRL shall be using Self Derrick Vessels for transportation at Sea up to Haldia port. Barges shall be used for transportation along the riverine route along Indo Bangladesh Protocol Route and Assam. 13 ODCs have been identified for transportation exclusively through the sea and waterways. The maximum dimension of the ODC equipment shall be 97 M in length, 10.3 M in diameter and 960 MT in weight. As the maximum length of the barge is restricted to 60 m, equipment with a length larger than 60 m shall be transported in two pieces.

Dredging operations shall be carried out extensively along the riverine route to facilitate the transportation process. RORO facilities shall be augmented at the NRL Jetty as per requirement. The infrastructural development is envisaged along the waterways can be used in future for shipping of dry cargo from the refinery and agricultural produce from the region, thereby enhancing connectivity of the Northeast with the rest of the country and also extending our footprint to global export destinations.

Minister of Agriculture and Veterinary of Assam Government Atul Bora and MLA (Sarupathar) Biswajit Phukan, MLA (Dergaon) Bhabendra Nath Bharali, IWAI's Member (Technical & Traffic) Ashutosh Gautam, NRL's Managing Director SK Barua, NRL's Director (Technical) BJ Phukan and NRL's Director (Finance) I Mittra was also present during the MoU signing ceremony.

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