Calcutta, March 7: The Chatterjee Group (TCG) has submitted a proposal to the Bengal government to set up a refinery in Haldia and sought the administration's help to locate suitable land for the mega project.
Finance minister Amit Mitra confirmed the proposal after presenting the industry budget in the state Assembly today.
"The TCG group has given a proposal to set up a refinery in Bengal. HPL and Mitsubishi Chemical are already operational in the state. The government is taking a holistic view, including the benefits for downstream industries," said Mitra.
TCG chairman Purnendu Chatterjee had announced a plan for a refinery, entailing an investment of Rs 20,000 crore, from the platform of Bengal Global Business Summit in 2016 and promised to come up with more details a year later. It was indicated then that TCG would look at a project having a capacity of 15 million tonnes as a backward integration with Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.
During the course of the last year, TCG also took over MCC PTA Ltd from Mitsubishi Chemicals, adding one more company in the petrochemical downstream chain.
HPL and MCC use naphtha and paraxylene as raw materials, respectively. Both the items will be processed in the crude oil refinery that Chatterjee's TCG is now proposing to build.
Haldia Petro makes granules that go into making plastic chairs, sacks and injection syringe. MCC produces purified terephthalic acid (PTA), used to make polyester fibre. The refinery will fit in as part of a large integrated petrochemical complex in Haldia that also has a port.
Incidentally, a refinery was part of the original plan when HPL was being built in the 1990s. It was then proposed to allot around 2,500 acres for the composite project. However, the refinery did not come up and HPL ended up with 1400 acres. Going by that calculation, TCG will require anywhere above 1,100 acres for the refinery. However, the group may be looking at around 1,500 acres keeping in mind the scope for expansion.
Sources said the government would look at land available with the Haldia Development Authority or the Calcutta Port Trust.
Mitra also said that the state-owned Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Corporation has formed a joint venture with GAIL, whereby the former would hold a 26 per cent stake. "A 26 per cent stake would give veto power," he explained.
