ONGC starts work on Kakinada SEZ again
By TNN |
Highlights
HYDERABAD: In a relief to the Andhra Pradesh state government, ONGC will resume work on the proposed special economic zone (SEZ) and refinery project near Kakinada.
Besides, the company is also expected to double its investment proposal from Rs 12,000 crore to about Rs 22,000 crore. The company had last year decided to pull out of the project on account of economic feasibility concerns. With intervention from the Central government, the public sector company is reconsidering the project.
Though the board of the company is yet to finalise financial and capacity of the refinery, company officials feel that the project will go through.
“As a majority stakeholder of the company, the government can take such decisions. We have been asked by the petroleum ministry to take up the project,” said a senior official of the company.
Talking about the capacity, he said, the company was looking at setting up a large refinery as an increase in capacity would make the project more viable. On its part, the Congress-led state government in Andhra Pradesh had sought the PM’s intervention to take the project forward and now it seems those efforts have paid off.
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“ONGC management has communicated its willingness to set up the project. The refinery is expected to have 15 million tonne per annum capacity. The SEZ will be developed by ONGC, IL&FS and Kakinada Seaports,” said a state government official. In October, the company said that the proposed refinery project in Kakinada SEZ would not be an attractive proposition in the wake of changing scenario of refining capacity along the country’s eastern coast.
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