Barmer Project: Vasundhara Raje to renegotiate with HPCL

JAIPUR: It is par for the course for politicians to change positions on important policies and projects when they join governments, but Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has chosen to do it differently this time.

Rajasthan's most high-profile individual industrial project, the Barmer Oil Refinery, has come under fire from Raje for a long time now. Speaking to ET during her campaign before state elections in November 2013, Raje was severe about the terms in which then chief minister Ashok Gehlot had cleared the project.

More than seven months, and an exhaustive "review" process of the project later, the Chief Minister now comfortably placed in her high seat following two consecutive electo ral victories in the desert state's history, said, "We will renegotiate the project."

Reiterated her problem with terms of the MoU between the state and HPCL regarding the project while presenting her first full budget for her second term, Raje said, “The former state government made a commitment (to HPCL as part of its understanding for setting up the refinery-cum-petroleum complex) to provide interest free yearly loan of Rs 3, 736 crore for 15 years.

"This way, the state's public was burdened with more than Rs 56,000 crore loan (not counting for interest)."

This prompted a review by the state, whose appraisal report says, "Within 15 years of the beginning of commercial production, more than Rs 68, 000 crore profit is expected; that is provided no other revenue from this profit-making investment is made."