Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone for the IndianOil’s Rs3,150 crore-Polypropylene Plant at its Paradip Refinery Project complex at Paradip on Sunday.
Excise Minister Dr Damodar Rout, School and Mass Education Minster Debi Prasad Mishra and Jagatsinghpur MP Dr Kulamani Samal were present. Emphasising the need for faster-pace industrial development to realise the Prime Minister’s dreams, Pradhan said this 700-TMTPA polypropylene plant would also pave way for developing a petrochemical hub in this zone. Polypropylene produced by this unit would be used in ancillaries to make moulded furniture, packaging material, containers, medical disposables, adhesive tapes, etc, he added.
Speaking on the future plans in this direction, the Minister said that IndianOil is also evaluating the feasibility of setting up of an Ethylene Derivative Plant at an estimated cost of nearly Rs 4,000 crore. The plant would provide products that will facilitate manufacturing of polyester chips, fibers, PET bottles, PET chips, polyester yarn, etc.
IndianOil Chairman B Ashok outlined the key benefits of the project aligning with the coming up of the Paradip Refinery slated to be commissioned in the current fiscal year. IndianOil Director (Refineries) Sanjiv Singh said “with the commissioning of PP Unit, probably in the next three years, a number of plastic processing industries will also come up in the area paving way for the development of a petrochemical hub in this zone”.
Notably, the Paradip Refinery will be catering to the energy needs of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. With the commissioning of the IndianOil’s 15-MMTPA grassroots refinery, IndianOil would be further augmenting its refining capacity, taking it to over 80.0 MMTPA.