Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will come on a two-day visit to Odisha on February 6 and 7.

During the visit, the Prime Minister will inaugurate Rs 35,000-crore-worth oil refinery project in Paradip.

Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan today announced this following a meeting with Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik here this evening. Pradhan met Naveen to extend invitation to him to attend the inaugural function.

The minister told reporters that apart from inaugurating the oil refinery, Modi was also scheduled to visit Jagannath temple in Puri and dedicate the newly built campus of National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser) in Jatni to the nation.

The Paradip oil refinery project is a long-pending scheme. In 2001, the then Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, had laid the foundation stone for the project in Paradip amid much fanfare. However, the project had been progressing at a snail's pace.

Shortage of human resources and other logistic hindrances had led to the inordinate delay for the commissioning of the project and its deadline has been rescheduled several times. Initially, the project was scheduled for commissioning in November 2012.

The refinery project had to encounter several hindrances apart from recurring lawlessness and disruption of work because of trade unionism.

Dredging and reclamation of marshy land and time-consuming pilling up of the reclaimed land led to the delay. Erratic transportation of raw materials, besides transport of over dimension cargo by sea route in rains, also delayed the project. Delay in getting environment and forest clearance for south jetty and pipeline spread-out work, impediment in equipment and bulk supplies have also posed bottlenecks, said company sources.

Paradip additional district magistrate Ramakrushna Sahu said: "With Paradip lined up for the ambitious Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions project, the successful commissioning of the oil refinery holds the key to the economic growth of the region. The state government is intent on clearing the project's hurdles."

The 15-million-tonne-per-annum refinery project is designed to operate on a broad basket of crude oils, including cheaper, high sulphur and heavy grades, and configured to perform with high-energy efficiency, said Indian Oil executive director Ramjee Ram.