Dubai, BADAL'S DREAM PROJECT GURU GOBIND SINGH REFINERY, BATHINDA

BADAL'S DREAM PROJECT GURU GOBIND SINGH REFINERY, BATHINDA Shiromani Akali Dal Patron and Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Parkash Singh Badal's dream project 'Bathinda Refinery' was dedicated to nation by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on April 28, 2012. At the dedication ceremony of the this refinery, Mr. Badal did not forget to appreciate the then Prime Minister and BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee for having approved the refinery for the state. The construction work of this refinery project was put to halt by former Chief Minister Capt. Amrinder Singh during his tenure. The state-of-the-art refinery has used structural steel that would have been enough to build 15 buildings of the size of Eiffel Tower, each 320 metres in height. The amount of cement and concrete used in the refinery would have built the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, twice with each structure measuring 829.84 metres. Chimneys of the refinery compete with Qutub Minar, the tallest minaret in India. The height of the chimneys is 141.7 metres, double the height of Qutub Minar. Over 2,800-km-long pipelines have been used over 2,000 acres of land. The pipelines are long enough to cover distance from Bathinda to Mumbai and even more. Transporting three reactors of 700 MT to 850 MT was the biggest challenge for the staff as they were brought from Kandla port to Bathinda covering a distance of 1,490 km. It was a mammoth exercise of transporting one of the heaviest cargo in India weighing over 2,100 tonnes. To ensure smooth flow of traffic, the refinery officials had to coordinate with multiple agencies, including the National Highway Authority of India, Union Ministry of Surface Transport, Railways, Irrigation, Power and Forest departments. The Crude Oil Terminal at Mundra and crude pipeline are sufficient to hold three days of India's total crude oil requirement. Apart from being an engineering marvel, the refinery is also self-sustainable in terms of power generation. Located in fuel and power deficient North India, the plant uses its poisonous gases for producing 153-MW of power, thereby, managing the emission that could have harmed the environment. The present capacity of the refinery is 9 million metric tonnes per annum, which, steel tycoon Laxmi N Mittal said, would be doubled to 18 million metric tonnes in the years to come. It was on April 11, 1996, that the Centre issued a letter informing Punjab about its decision regarding setting up a refinery in Bathinda.