Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today dedicated to the Nation the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL) Petrochemical Complex, a flagship project of Assam, and Numaligarh Refinery Limited’s Wax Plant at afunction here.
The plants were dedicated to the Nation by the Hon’ble Prime Minister in the august presence of Hon’ble Governor of Assam Shri Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam Shri Tarun Gogoi, Hon’ble Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri Ananth Kumar, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (I/C), Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (I/C), Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri SarbanandaSonowal, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Development of North Eastern Region,Dr.Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri HansrajGangaramAhir, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Shri RameswarTeli, Hon’ble Member of Legislative Assembly, Assam, Shri PrithibiMajhi, besides a host of other dignitaries.
BCPL was conceptualized to implement the Assam Gas Cracker project which is an outstanding outcome of the historic Assam Accord signed in 1985 aimed at the socio economic development of the entire North Eastern Region. The project was approved by the Government of India on April 18, 2006. BCPL is a Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India. GAIL (India) Limited is the main promoter having 70% equity participation and the rest 30% is equally shared by Oil India Limited (OIL), Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and Government of Assam.
Set up with an investment of approx. Rs. 10,000 crores, the BCPL plant will have the capacity to manufacture 2,80,000 tonnes per annum of polymer products which will result in the growth of new downstream plastic processing industries in the North Eastern region, besides reducing dependency on polymer supply from other parts of the country.
It has generated direct employment for 700 personnel and indirect employment for around 2,500 people in the project complex. Moreover, it will generate nearly one lakh indirect employment opportunities through setting up of various downstream plastic processing industries and ancillaries in the region.
The BCPL complex, situated at Lepetkata about 15 kms from Dibrugarh, is spread over 3,000 bighas of land which was acquired and handed over by the Government of Assam to BCPL.
The Feedstock for the project will be Natural Gas and Naphtha which will be supplied by Oil India Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and NRL. Some of the major challenges faced during the construction of the BCPL plant included requirement of huge earth-filling at the project site which was located at a low-lying area, prolonged monsoon period and heavy rainfall leading to lesser effective working time for construction and scarcity of adequate resources. Despite these hurdles, the plant has been successfully commissioned and dedicated to the Nation today.
