Nagpur :-At a meeting called by the MIDC at Udyog Bhawan recently, presentations were made by Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) to Upendra Tamore, Deputy CEO, MIDC, and his team, regarding the necessity of a Petrochemical complex and a Ferro alloys cluster near Nagpur.
VED President, Devendra Parekh, explained the need for a driver-unit in Vidarbha like the petrochemical complex (PC) through which 500-1000 MSMEs would be established due to the availability of raw materials. Shivkumar Rao, IPP, who made the presentations, said ,2000 acres of land, 4 MLD of water, and 600 mega watts of power, per day, would be required, and that Butibori extension was the best location, especially as it was closely connected to the Samruddhi Mahamarg which would enable the pipeline carrying the raw materials to come from JNPT.
Vinayak Marathe, Ex- Senior VP, Reliance Industries and Refinery expert explained the technical aspects saying that a 4 million tonne capacity PC should be set up, and suggested that the first step should be to conduct a techno-economic feasibility study report of the project. Since MIDC is the nodal agency, and as directed by the DCM, Devendra Fadnavis, Marathe proposed that Engineers India Ltd a Pulbic Sector Undertaking be entrusted with this job, since even the Ratnagiri refinery report was made by them and their work is acceptable to all the companies.
Further, Marathe mentioned that there are 4-5 stand-alone PCs in the country which are without any refineries and working profitably. Nagpur has all the prerequisites for establishing the PC.
Upendra Tamore, Dep CEO, MIDC, was very forthcoming and said he would take this up with lightning speed and proceed with the project, keeping VED in the loop.
Regarding another issue, that is Ferro alloys, Shivkumar Rao explained that 80% of the State’s minerals are in Vidarbha, but particularly manganese, of which Maharashtra has the largest deposits along with Odisha. Ore in the raw form is being sent for value-addition to other states, so if a processing cluster is established near Ramtek, close to the location of most of the minerals, it would create huge business and employment opportunities.
Rajendra Sane, mangansese processing expert thanked the DCM for assuring giving of power tariff at a concessional rate with competing states, stressing the importance, that 55-60% cost of the raw material is due to power. He said that Ramtek is the right location. He further said that once the commitment of supplying power at Rs. 4.50 is declared, then the cluster would get booked immediately as the steel plants are waiting anxiously to encash this opportunity. Apart from manganese, he said, other related minerals can also be processed and value-added in this cluster.
Apart from Dep. CEO, MIDC, Upendra Tamore, others of the MIDC team present at the meeting were Regional Officer, Mahendra Patel, Executive Engineer, Ravindra Meshram, Superintending Engineer, Sunil Akolkar, Chief Engineer, Rajesh Zanzad.
The VED delegates comprised Founder President Govind Daga, President, Devendra Parekh, IIP, Shivkumar Rao, Secretary General, Rahul Upganlawar, Treasurer, Navin Malewar. The guests comprised Vinayak Marathe, Ex-Senior VP, Reliance Industries and Rajendra Sane, Manganese Processing Expert.
