S.K. Srivastava, OIL chairman and managing director

Duliajan, Sept. 24: Plans are being chalked out to transform Duliajan, the field headquarters of Oil India Ltd (OIL), into a township on a par with the “best in the country”.

The Navratna company has engaged the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, to prepare a masterplan to develop the town, which is set amid sprawling tea gardens and lush green forests.

The 50-square-km town in Dibrugarh district is about 500km from Guwahati.

OIL chairman and managing director S.K. Srivastava told The Telegraph on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting here recently that the New Delhi-based institute had conducted a preliminary survey at Duliajan and were expected to submit their report by next year.

He said the institute will also prepare a plan to develop Narengi in Guwahati, where OIL has its pipelines headquarters.

“We have these two major projects to be taken up shortly where the two townships would be transformed into among the best in the country,” he said.

Srivastava, who took charge as the OIL CMD last year, took up the initiative to develop these two townships soon after taking charge and the company subsequently approached the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi..

A senior OIL official said the two townships would be developed on the lines of Jamshedpur, which is known as the steel city of India.

“But these two OIL towns will be far better and well-planned than Jamshedpur as the steel city was planned much earlier,” he added.

Srivastava said OIL is committed to develop the company’s area of operations under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

“According to government guidelines, OIL earmarks two per cent of its net profit for its CSR activities and a lion’s share of these funds are utilised in Assam and other northeastern region,” he said.

The company’s profit touched a new peak of Rs 3,589.34 crore this fiscal, an increase of 4.13 per cent over the previous year.

Srivastava said the company would also construct an amphitheatre at Kaziranga National Park and the park authorities have submitted a proposal. “The proposal has been cleared and the funds will be released soon,” he said.

He said some of the ongoing CSR projects of the company include Project Sparsh, a mobile dispensary service in OIL operational areas, Project Rupantar to create and train self-help groups for livelihood generation, Project Dikhya to improve computer literacy among schoolchildren and adult literacy and Project IMR to reduce infant mortality rate.

“Plans are also on to take up a Dairy Project, Kamdhenu, in Dibrugarh district to provide employment opportunities to youths in OIL’s operational districts of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Sivasagar,” he added.