RIL's jatropha plant to create 12,000 jobs

Reliance Industries has proposed to set up a Rs 500-crore bio-diesel (jatropha) plant in Madhya Pradesh.

The company is preparing a blue-print for the project and may enter into a pact with farmers for japtropha (locally known as Ratanjot) cultivation. It will come up with a concrete proposal to the state government within three months.

The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), the technical advisor to the company, and a team of company officials recently called on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and discussed the proposal.

"The company has planned to set up the plant and has asked for a wasteland area of 50,000 hectares," a government source told Business Standard.

A member of the delegation confirmed the report and said: "A team will visit two or three sites in the state and will come up with a proposal within two to three months. Chouhan has promised us support." The member said the company wanted 50,000 hectares of barren land and more.

Till now, the company has asked for no tax concessions or any other sops. "We hope to extract oil within three years," said the member.

Jatropha, a perennial indigenous oilseed tree, has the same characteristics as diesel, and can be used on its own or be mixed with conventional diesel. Teri has reportedly developed a method called the mycorrhizal application, which speeds up the yield. The input cost for 1 litre of bio-diesel from Jatropha stands at Rs 20-22.

Nitrogen-rich de-oiled cakes prepared out of jatropha make for better organic manure. It has been reported that raising Jatropha plantation over 1 hectare of land generates 300 mandays. The company has proposed to generate 12,000 jobs.The state government last year launched its wasteland land policy.

The state has more than 1 million hectares of wasteland.