Days after Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Maharashtra government seems to be changing its mind on the Nanar Oil Refinery Project in Konkan and is hoping for a revival, it has emerged that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January requesting to consider a new location for the project in the Ratnagiri district.
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Sources in the government said Thackeray had written a letter to Modi on January 12 requesting to consider a new site for the project. Instead of Nanar, the Maharashtra government has proposed a land parcel of 13,000 hectare at Barsu village in Ratnagiri district for the refinery and a land parcel of 2,144 acre in Nate village for the Crude Oil Terminal.
Sources said that the CM has justified the new locations stating that “almost 90 per cent land parcel is barren and no displacement of houses/wadis is estimated since the villages are located outside the project area.” Thackeray has said that the land parcel is free from all encumbrances and that it can be used without disturbing the ecological balance.
Thackeray has also conveyed to the PM that the project was initially proposed at Nanar in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra but it could not be executed due to environmental and rehabilitation constraints. Sources in the government said that the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (RRPCL) has reportedly given positive feedback about the new locations.
The facility, which was to come up at Nanar, was cleared by the Centre and state government in December 2015 and was to pass through a land spread across 17 villages in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. It was to come up as a 50:50 joint venture between Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (RRPCL) — its investors were Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — and a partnership between the Saudi-owned Aramco and UAE’s National Oil Company.
The government had initiated the process of the land survey when it was shelved suddenly before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 over “environmental concerns” expressed by the Sena following opposition from the locals. The Sena, in fact, had made it a condition of its pre-poll alliance with the BJP ahead of the elections.
The debate on the oil refinery project was revived after Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that indications have been given by the Maharashtra government about changing its mind on it.
“There is hope for the revival of the Nanar refinery project as the Maharashtra government seems to be changing its mind about the project in the Konkan region,” said Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan, at an event in Mumbai Sunday. He further said that the plan is to reduce the size of the project and build it in Konkan.
Pradhan was in conversation with Loksatta Editor Girish Kuber at the ‘Loksatta Tarun Tejankit Awards 2021’, where awards were given to talented young achievers from different sectors of Maharashtra by the Union Minister.
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