Road encroachments to be removed for IOCL refinery

The Orissa government has asked the district administration of Jagatsinghpur to initiate steps for clearing the encroachments for widening the existing road linking Paradeep port with the refinery project of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) coming up in the area.

The Jagatsinghpur district collector and Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), central range, have been asked to hold discussion with the encroachers and if required, rehabilitate them.

“There were some problems pertaining to widening of the road connecting the port with the refinery project. The district collector and RDC have been asked to take steps clear the land for road expansion and rehabilitate the encroachers”, chief secretary T K Mishra said.

It may be noted, Mishra recently convened a high level meeting to review the progress of the Rs 30,000 crore oil refinery project of IOCL. He said, the project authorities had complained about traffic problem.

As the capacity of the Paradeep port is also being enhanced, the port is expected to handle higher traffic and project cargo within next one and half years.

He said, the work on the 15 million tonne refinery project is going on in full speed and this is likely to be commissioned by 2012.

Further, as a link project a 3 million tonne per annum product pipeline is proposed to be set up by IOCL for evacuation of the products of Paradip refinery and uninterrupted supply to major parts of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

This project consists of laying of 1108 km long product pipeline with intermediate pumping stations at Jatni and Sambalpur and delivery stations at Jatni, Jharsuguda, Ranchi and Raipur.