petrochemical project

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone of a Rs.54-billion integrated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone of a Rs.54-billion integrated petrochemical project in Assam in Assam. The gas cracker project was proposed as a part of the implementation of the historic Assam accord signed in 1985. The project was gathering dust since 1991 when the central government issued a letter of intent (LoI) to the Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), an Assam government undertaking.In February 1997, the LoI was transferred to the Reliance Assam Petrochemicals Limited (RAPL) - a joint venture company of AIDC and Reliance Industries Limited.RAPL was granted various concessions by the government for implementation of the project. But the deal with RAPL was shelved in 2005 with Reliance virtually backing out of the project, citing technical reasons like non-availability of sufficient feedstock.The petrochemical complex would comprise a cracker unit, downstream polymer and integrated off-site utilities plants. The products from the proposed project would be 2,20,000 tonnes of polythene, 60,000 tonnes of polypropylene, 55,000 tonnes of raw pyrolysis gasoline and 12,500 tonnes of fuel oil per year.The project, popularly referred to as the Assam gas cracker project but christened the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd, is to be implemented by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) with 70 percent equity participation in five years' time.