Saudi Aramco mega-refinery project doubles in size as Fadnavis gives it a new venue

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 20

The size of the proposed mega-petroleum refinery, planned by a consortium of state-run oil companies and Saudi Aramco, will be more than twice the size initially envisioned, after the Maharashtra government decided to shift the project to a different venue.

According to the new plan, the refinery will be situated in the coastal Raigad district.

The refinery was originally planned to attract an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore and was due to be located across 5,392 hectares of land in Ratnagiri district.

However, opposition from the locals and the Shiv Sena— which is an ally of the Devendra Fadnavis government—caused the land acquisition process in Ratnagiri to halt on the eve of the Lok Sabha election.

In a written reply to a query in the Maharashtra Assembly earlier this week, Fadnavis said the refinery would now be relocated to Raigad district and would be more than twice the size of the one originally planned. 

The West Coast refinery will be part of an Integrated Industrial Cluster spread over 13,409.52 hectares.

Apart from industries, a mega township will also be developed around the industrial cluster, according to sources in the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is the agency overseeing land acquisition for the project.

State government officials say the cluster will attract investments far higher than the Rs 3 lakh crore originally planned for the refinery project. 

The CM told the Assembly that there was no opposition from the farmers or the people living in the 40 villages whose land was proposed to be acquired.

CIDCO officials said they had asked for details of land records from the local authorities and the process of surveying the land would begin soon.

Earlier, the central government had mulled shifting the refinery project to Gujarat following opposition from environmental groups and local leaders in Ratnagiri.