Chief minister Tarun Gogoi at the event at Guwahati Refinery on Monday. Pictures by UB Photos

Guwahati, March 19: It was the late fifties. A young student called Tarun Gogoi braved a curfew and police caning to hit the streets, along with thousands across the state, demanding a refinery for the state.

This evening, a septuagenarian Tarun Gogoi stood in Guwahati Refinery recalling those days of agitation that led to the setting up of the country’s first public sector refinery in 1962.

At the concluding ceremony of the refinery’s golden jubilee ceremony here, Gogoi promised that he would do everything to support it, including approaching the Centre to enhance excise duty concession from 50 to 100 per cent.

“We will approach the Centre to exempt it from excise duty for its growth,” he said.

Guwahati Refinery, mana-ged by Indian Oil Corporation Limited and built with Roma-nian collaboration, was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru.

The initial crude processing capacity at the time of commissioning was 0.75 million metric tonnes per annum.

The refinery produces various products and supplies them in the region as well as beyond, up to Siliguri through the 435-km Guwahati-Siliguri pipeline — the first pipeline of Indian Oil Corporation commissioned in 1964.

Most of the products of Guwahati Refinery are evacuated through pipeline and some by road.

IOC chairman R.S. Butola said commissioning of Indian Oil’s Guwahati Refinery on January 1, 1962, by Nehru heralded the beginning of India’s own refining industry in the public sector following the Union government’s decision to be self-sufficient in oil and free itself from domination by foreign multinationals.

“The challenges were tough and many. But Indian Oil people and the stakeholders, with the support of Romanian engineers, the government of India and the government of Assam rose to the occasion and commissioned the refinery within a span of two years. Indian Oil today is the largest refinery in the country with 65.7 million metric tonnes per annum group refining capacity which is expected to go up to 80.7 million metric tonnes per annum after commissioning of the refinery currently under construction at Paradip,” he said.

Talking about the marketing operations of the company in the Northeast, Butola said Indian Oil had been firmly committed to meet the fuel needs of the people across the region, notwithstanding the difficult terrain, infrastructure bottlenecks, natural calamities and insurgency.

Two MP3 music albums, showcasing the heritage of Assamese music, were released by the chief minister as part of the golden jubilee celebrations.