Image courtesy-RIL Q3 2014-15 presentation

 

 

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the country’s pace-setter for giant manufacturing projects, appeared to have lost steam and valuable time due to adverse business and policy environment under the UPA regime. 

This is the conclusion an analyst would arrive at after looking at the company’s self-assessment of the implementation of its Rs 60,000-crore multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) at Jamnagar in Gujarat. The Assessment shows that 18 units of this 30-plants complex are yet to move beyond the design stage. 

This has forced the company to seek 5-year extension in the environmental clearance (EC) for the petroleum-cum-petrochemical complex, which is one of the most complex and integrated projects in the world, according to an official source. 

While seeking extension, RIL has stated: “The projects as per approval are in different stages of execution. Some of the components in the approved EC are, however, completed and commissioned.”  

(Sectional view of Statue designed by J.J. School of Architecture.Edited Image courtesy: Maharashtra PWD)

Mumbai economy would get a big boost after the development of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai.

The Rs 1890-crore project is expected to result in an annual expenditure of Rs 17,458 crore/year by tourists visiting the Memorial. The project last week received fast-track environmental clearance from the Centre. 

On 13th February, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted “Thank you @PrakashJavdekar ji(Union Minister for Environment & Forests) for giving environmental clearance today, for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial in Arabian Sea.”

According to a study commissioned by Maharashtra Public Works Department (PWD), “With the erection of the memorial it would attract leisure tourists due to the historical significance of the memorial. The leisure tourists visiting Mumbai would need to stay for an extra day to visit the memorial. The economic gains due to leisure tourists would be Rs 8703.89 crores. The non- leisure tourists would visit the memorial once due to its novelty. Hence, one time economic gains due to non-leisure tourists would be Rs 8754.67 crores.”

Gas Pipeline Laying-Image Courtesy: GAIL

 

 

After GAIL, it is now the turn of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) to throw up its hands over the issue of laying gas pipelines in Tamil Nadu (TN). 

BPCL has also put on record the inordinate delay and fickleness on the part of the Centre in granting environmental clearance (EC) for its pipeline that would transmit liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL’s) refinery at Kochi in Kerala to Coimbatore in TN. 

Exasperated by the tortuous delay in clearing the section of the LPG pipeline that passes through TN, BPCL has urged Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) to delink this section from the 238-kilometre pipeline project and grant it EC for the project up to Kerala-TN border. 

The company has pleaded for grant of truncated EC to avoid turning its Rs 15,000-crore expansion of Kochi refinery into a white Elephant! The pipeline is crucial for transport of additional LPG that would flow from expanded refinery, which is scheduled for completion by December 2015. 

Apart from serving existing LPG bottling plants located along the pipeline route, the project provides for setting up of LPG storage and bottling plant at Coimbatore. 

In a letter dated 5th March2015 address to MOEFCC, BPCL says: “Without evacuating the additional LPG, the refinery cannot be operated at additional capacity.”