Keen to project refinery at Barmer and Metro rail for capital Jaipur as major achievements of the Rajasthan Government in the coming Assembly elections, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the other ruling Congress leaders are worried as they are going to miss the bus. As of now both the projects are set to be delayed.
As one of its major achievements, the State Government in the last month had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with public sector Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ltd (HPCl) to set up a 9 million-tonne capacity of refinery-cum-petro chemical complex near Barmer. The estimated cost of the project is `36,000 crore and is likely to be operational after four years if the construction work was started within three months.
The Government had already started the process to acquire about 9,000 bihgas of land near Barmer. As Gehlot wanted to take the credit of bringing State’s first refinery, he is keen that laying of foundation of this mega project should be done at the earliest and much before September-October when the code of conduct would come into force for the November Assembly elections.
According to official sources, owing to agitation by the local farmers, whose land is being acquired, the process has been delayed.
Fearing that the agitation may gather further momentum in the coming days, the Government is looking for alternate land for the complex.
This would lead to further delay in the project and Gehlot may miss the deadline to lay the foundation stone ahead of the Assembly elections.
Similarly, the Metro project for the State capital is already delayed by two months. Announced soon after coming to power in December 2006, Gehlot had said that the project would be completed by June 2013.
Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation in collaboration with the DMRC, tried its level best to meet the deadline. But it got delayed for one or the other reason.
Though the laying of tracks is in full swing, there is at least six-month delay in the completion of the railway stations in this first phase of the project, which would link Mansarovar with Chandpole in the Walled City. Even the arrangements for supply of electrify are yet to be put in place. Some coaches for the train were to arrive by this time for trial. But now the Bangalore-based company, which is building the coaches, had intimated that it would send the coaches only after the trial in Bangalore itself.
Though on Saturday Gehlot directed the officials to monitor these two projects on day-to-day basis, officials are not sure that these projects would be completed by the deadline set by the political leadership of the Government.