Barauni (Begusarai): The capacity of the Barauni refinery will be raised to 9 MMTPA, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan said Sunday.
The current capacity of the refinery is 6 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum.
Pradhan, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, also announced that his department will launch a slew of oil and gas related projects in Bihar with investment of Rs 25,000 crore. Several such projects are already in different stages of construction, including the petro chemical complex at Barauni, he said.
"The refining capacity of the Barauni refinery will be raised to nine MMTPA from six MMTPA at present," he said, while addressing the Golden Jubilee function of the Barauni refinery located about 125 km from the state capital.
Augmenting the refining capacity of the Barauni refinery comprised only "Payment in instalment" among various promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Gandhi Maidan for development of Bihar in the event of being elected to power at the Centre before Lok Sabha polls, Pradhan said.
Referring to the trust reposed by the people of Bihar in Modi, Pradhan said, the same will be returned in terms of development of the state in the years to come.
Giving credit of Barauni refinery expansion to Modi, he described himself as the 'postman' of Prime Minister.
On Bihar, he said that small factories, enterprises and chemical units will also come up in the state, adding that all these projects were aimed at generation of employment opportunity for the people and economic growth of the region.
He said the fertiliser plant at Barauni, which remained closed for years, will be revived soon and will be run on gas instead of naphtha. He added that gas for the fertiliser plant will be supplied from the 650-km long gas pipeline Jagdishpur- Haldia project.
"My ministry will take responsibility to provide required gas for the fertiliser plant," Pradhan vowed.
Outlining other projects of his ministry, he said that an oil pipeline be laid from Motihari to Nepal to provide oil and gas to the neighbouring country.
"Till now tankers used to supply oil to Nepal, but our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the neighbouring country last year, had promised to lay pipeline for the same and it will be done soon," he said.
He announced the laying of a LPG pipeline from Durgapur in West Bengal to Barauni-Patna-Muzaffarpur in Bihar and said that more LPG bottling plants have also been proposed in Bihar to meet growing demand of the cooking gas in the state and also in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
Regarding social welfare initiatives of the PSU oil companies, Pradhan said that the IOC in Barauni will start nursing and college for the students from next year and added that the Baruani refinery will launch skill development project for 400 students of this region.
With regard to environmental issues arising out of refinery project, he said that such matters will be looked into.
