DIBRUGARH, May 6 � Contrary to public speculation that the Gas Cracker Project, under construction at Lepetkata near here, would not be ready before March 2014, the chairman of Brahmaputra Cracker & Polymer Limited (BCPL), Bhuvan Chandra Tripathi, today said that he is hopeful the project would be commissioned by July 2013. He also disclosed that the revised cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 9,285 crore and that this has the in-principle approval of the Centre.
Earlier, the Gas Cracker Project was estimated to cost Rs 5,460 crore. The price has since shot up to Rs 9,285 crore. Tripathi said the earlier estimate was based on 2005 prices, while the new estimate is based on 2011 prices. Till March 31 this year, the project has seen a capital expenditure of Rs 2,167.46 crore, and the total expenditure planned for the current financial year (2011-12) is Rs 3,214.94 crore. He added that purchase and construction orders worth Rs 7,065.68 crore have been placed with vendors and contractors. He claimed that about 38 per cent construction activity has been achieved, till April this year.
The project, upon commissioning would produce 2,20,000 tonne per annum of polyethylene and 60,000 tonne per annum of polypropylene.
According to Tripathi, BCPL is in the process of recruiting all necessary personnel for the project, and that campus recruitments would be carried out in various colleges and universities in the State later this month.
In the past few months, construction activity at the project site has been at satisfactory levels, with the BCPL management being assisted with DGM and Chief Manager-level officials, deputed from GAIL the majority stakeholder in the Gas Cracker. Several of these senior managers have project execution experience. Adding to this are the 7,000 labourers on work at the project site. With the Bihu festivities concluding, the number of workers at the project site is likely to double, as per requirement.
Asked if local manufacturers and vendors are getting business scope in the project, both Tripathi and the BCPL chief operating officer, Prabhu Nath Prasad, said they are procuring material and services from local providers to the extent possible. They said that as far as cement and steel are concerned, these are sourced from local manufacturers upon meeting the required specifications. �We will buy from local sources, but without compromising on quality,� said Tripathi.
To this, Prasad added that in a crucial industrial construction, topmost stress is laid on the quality of materials used. Even in the case of sourcing materials like sand, bricks and stone chips, quality of materials has never been compromised, he said.
Earlier, Tripathi said that work on the pipeline laying on the Lepetkata-Duliajan and Lepetkata-Lakwa sectors are on in full swing. These pipelines would be used to transport gas from OIL and ONGC sources. The other raw material for the Gas Cracker, naphtha, would be carried by train tankers from Numaligarh to a railway siding at Dhamalgaon (near Bogibeel), from where it would be pumped via pipeline to Lepetkata. Work on the special railway siding has commenced, according to Prasad.
