New Delhi: After shelving the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (RRPCL) project in the Nanar village in 2019, in the face of opposition from locals, the ruling Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra is now seemingly open to revive the project at a different location, still within the taluka.
On Tuesday, March 29, the Print reported that Maharashtra industries minister Subhash Desai said that the villages of Dopeshwar and Barsu had been singled out as potential sites for the project. Both villages are Ratnagiri’s Rajapur taluka, in which the Nanar village also lies.
The Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemical Limited project
The project was first introduced in 2015 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in Maharashtra, in alliance with the Shiv Sena.
The project was meant to be an “ultra” refinery for crude oil, spanning over 16,000 acres of land across 17 villages, with the main refinery to be at Nanar.
The $44 billion, six-million-tonne refinery was meant to be a joint venture among foreign oil megacompanies Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Indian public sector oil companies Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.
However, the project was met with strong opposition from local residents, farmers and fisherfolk, gram panchayat samitis, environmentalists and the like, who protested to ensure the project did not go forward. Eventually in 2019, the Shiv Sena sided with the protestors and made its Maharashtra alliance partner, the BJP, shelve the project.
Also read: The Nanar Refinery Will Be Moved, but Larger Questions Remain
Thereafter, the Shiv Sena joined the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, along with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress to form government in the state.
Another site in the same taluka was identified after the MVA government came to power, however, this was also opposed by locals. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had, at the time, said that the project would be moved out of the Konkan region if need be.
Recent developments
On Sunday, March 26, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters that the Maharashtra government “seems to be changing its mind” on the Nanar refinery project, while also saying that the project has the potential to contribute “crores of rupees and employment” to the state’s economy.
In response, Shiv Sena MP from Ratnagiri Sindhudurg Vinayak Raut said that Pradhan’s statement was meant to confuse the locals. “As far as I remember, Dharmendra Pradhan is no longer the petroleum and natural gas minister. He is the education minister and should speak more on education,” the Hindustan Times quoted Raut as saying.
State environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, too, spoke of developing the project at an alternative site, however, noting that it should be done only after consultation with and approval of the locals.
“The next steps will be taken keeping in mind how the sons of the soil will get justice,” the Print quoted him as saying.
As far as industries minister Desai’s claims go, the Economic Times reported that the Maharashtra government approached the Union government with a suggestion to move the project to the Barsu village, however, villagers from this village, too, objected to the project on similar grounds as the residents of Nanar village had done earlier.