State-run refiner Indian Oil Corporation ltd's (IOCl) ambitious but much delayed Rs 29,000 crore Paradip refinery project is all set to miss its March 2014 deadline and may now be commissioned only by June next year, owing to the flooding caused by the cyclone Phailin and labour unrest being faced by the project management which has led to periodic stoppages in work and cost escalations.
According to sources familiar with the Paradip refinery project progress, the floods caused due to the cyclone Phailin which had ravaged the coastal parts of Odisha, had also affected the work at the refinery site. With Paradip situated bang on the eastern coastline of the state - which was one of the epicenters of the cyclone, several labourers who had come from outside the state had left work in the aftermath of the natural calamity. At the same time the local labour force has been resorting to agitation demanding rehabilitation for people on whose land the project is coming up.
Though IOC officials have downplayed the labour unrest by claiming that stoppage of work does happen in any project of such magnitude, they agreed at the same time that the refinery would now be commissioned only by June 2014.
Meanwhile after all construction related activities had come to a standstill on December 23 at the refinery site owing to an agitation by the East Odisha Industrial Development Council, a local trade union, which has been demanding rehabilitation and employment for all the people who have lost their lands to the project, a meeting is scheduled to take place between the union representatives, IOC project management and the Jagatsinghpur district administration on December 27.
When contacted, IOC's Director (Refinery) R K Ghosh said that despite the halt in work on December 23, situation at the site has returned to normal and that the work disruption was not giving the project management any sleepless nights. The construction work has since begun in full swing, he added.
He claimed that he had no knowledge about the agenda of the December 27 meeting and informed that the Paradip refinery's executive director would be present on behalf of the Maharatna company. On further being quizzed about the project missing the deadline, Ghosh said that no exact time frame can be pointed out at under the situation but simultaneously indicated that the commissioning may happen by mid-2014 now.
After the District Magistrate-cum-Collector of Jagatsinghpur (under whose jurisdiction the site falls) was apprised of the prevailing agitation, December 27 was fixed as the date for the meeting between the district administration, union representatives and the IOC project management.
The Paradip refinery has had a chequered history, as it was originally conceived in May 2000, when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid its foundation stone.
Initially planned as a 6 million tonnes refinery, its capacity was raised to 15 million tonnes for achieving better returns. After facing initial delays when the Odisha Government did not in the beginning, give it tax concessions (which was later granted), the project went on to face a host of issues - right from downturn in the oil market, land acquisition problems, delay in commissioning of the captive power plant, to the prevailing labour problem.