Amid protests by hundreds of villagers against the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Project (RRPCL) at Barsu in Rajapur taluka of Ratnagiri district in coastal Konkan region, Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that that irrespective of a stiff resistance to the project from the local people, the Maharashtra Government would go ahead and complete the RRPL at the chosen location.

As the people from six villages in and around Borasu began to protest against the soil tests being carried out by the RRPL administration, Fadnavis said that  in the light of the ongoing against agitation against the project,  the question of the Maharashtra government rolling back the prestigious project did not arise.

“This is project is important for Maharashtra. The question of our rolling back the RRPL does not arise. We would go ahead and complete the project at the chosen location of Barsu village in Rajapur taulka of Ratnagiri district,” Fadnavis said in an interview to a leading Marathi television channel.

Seeking to allay fears of the local villagers that RRPL posed a massive environmental threat to the area where it is being developed, Fadanavis said: “The project does not pose any threat to the nature. Instead, the project is very beneficial for the people in the region, as it will provide one lakh job opportunities. The misinformation campaign has been going on against the project. The Opposition MVA, when it was in power, had written to the Centre seeking to locate the project at Barsu. Now the MVA is opposing the project for political reasons”.      

It may be recalled that on April 12, 2018, an Indian consortium comprising Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) for setting an oil refinery and petroleum products complex in Rajapur taluka of Ratnagiri district.

Meanwhile, in a related development, hundreds of activists – including women – staged a massive protest by squatting on the roads to stop the RRPL teams from entering their villages top carry out soil tests.

The RRPCL teams are sinking borewells and taking samples to carry out soil tests in and around the villages of Barsu, Goval, Dhopeshwar Varchiwadi-Goval, Rajapur, Khalchiwadi-Goval, Panhale-Tarfe, amid massive police bandobast deployed in and around these villages.