Even one year after refinery, plastic park nowhere in sight
BATHINDA: There has been no sign of the much-hyped downstream petroleum industry even a year after the Guru Gobind Singh HMEL-HPCL oil refinery was inaugurated at Rama Mandi, Bathinda.
The district administration had proposed to the state government to acquire 100- acre land to set up a plastic park for the petrochemical-based downstream industry at Jassi Bagh Wali village.
One year after the official commissioning of the refinery, the state government is yet to set up the park, claimed to be the biggest form of oil refinerybased downstream industry.
The district office of the commerce and industry department has failed to get a favourable response from industrialists after the refinery was commissioned on April 28 last year.
When asked if there is any boom in the industrial sector of the region in the last one year, Chaman Lal, general manager, district commerce and industry department, said,
“There are a few queries. We
DOWNSTREAM PETROLEUM INDUSTRY FAILS TO COME UP DESPITE THE PROMISES MADE IN THIS REGARD
cannot say if these will convert into investment. We are expecting that plastic park would invite some investment.”
Raman Watts, president of the Bathinda Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, “Local industry has gained nothing from the refinery. There is no sudden impact of the commissioning of the refinery on the local industry. We have repeatedly asked the district administration to make local industrialists aware of the investment that could be made in the downstream industry, but have got no response.”
He said, “We had demanded that the district administration fix a meeting with refinery officials so that local small scale industrialists could know what kind of investment they could make. Proposal of the plastic park has been there for long but there is no clarity where it would be set up and when. The plastic park should have come into existence with the commissioning of the industry last year.”
The refinery was projected as a big employment generation project. However, it has limited employees from Punjab.
Downstream industry is the only hope for the unemployed youth from the region for getting employment. A survey conducted by the state government three years ago had calculated an investment potential of Rs 1,051 crore in petrochemical industry after the commissioning of the oil refinery.
However, as far as the plastic park is concerned, the department has failed to identify the land to set up the park. Now the administration has sent a proposal to the state government to acquire 100 acres of land near Jassi Bagh Wali village.
“It is just a proposal. The state government has to take a call on this,” said Chaman Lal.
Paramjit Singh, sarpanch, Jassi Bagh Wali village, said, “We have heard that the administration is doing a survey. No official has intimated me if the 100-acre land from our village is proposed to be acquired for the park.”