MUMBAI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena have again locked horns over the West Coast Refinery Project proposed at Nanar in Ratnagiri district. Even as the future of the project appears to be doldrums after the major investor and Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Saudi ARAMCO suspended its plan to go public with an IPO, the BJP is confident that the project will materialise, while the Shiv Sena still continues to oppose the project.
Saudi ARAMCO and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) had signed an agreement with the Centre to invest in the Nanar project — with ARAMCO, the world’s largest oil producer, agreeing to take up 50 per cent stake in the refinery project, in April. ARAMCO had later diluted some of its stakes to ADNOC, while state-owned refiners IOC, HPCL and BPCL were said to own the remaining 50 per cent stake.
However, ARAMCO suspended its plans to go public last week. In a statement, company’s Chairman and Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said that the IPO has not been called off.
While the groups opposing the project are treating the announcement as their moral victory, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has indicated that the government shall continue pursuing the project that “has a potential to change the economy of the entire state and not just the Konkan region”.
BJP’s new Rajya Sabha MP and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, the Shiv Sena and some local groups had been opposing the project. While the locals are concerned primarily about the environmental issues, the Shiv Sena had been of the view that ‘outsiders’ (non-Maharashtrians) shouldn’t be allowed. The Shiv Sena had highlighted the issue of sale and purchase of land, from the affected area, by ‘outsiders’.
“When the project was conceived about four years back, the Shiv Sena was with us. Many of their ministers, MPs and MLAs had attended meetings with us. However, now they have decided to oppose the project. But, I’m sure the locals are not with them,” former BJP MLA from Kankavli, Pramod Jathar, told The Sunday Standard.
Total land required for the project is around 15,000 acres — of which around 10 per cent is vegetated. Only around 3,000 acres of land under disputes is likely to have been disposed of off by the owners to the said ‘outsiders’, “who are relatives of those who are opposing the project,” Jathar said declining to take names.
“If and when the government announces the package for purchasing land for the project, those opposing the project will fall in line,” he added.
“In the Nanar refinery project, the oil companies have agreed to most of the terms spelt out by the coordination committee of locals”, Jathar added.
The Shiv Sena, however, is not ready to budge. Launching protests against the project at the district headquarters on Friday, the party has indicated that it will continue opposing the project.