Nagpur: Responding to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s remark that Vidarbha cannot have a crude oil refinery ever as it lacks a sea coast has been countered by his party MLA from Katol, Ashish Deshmukh.
“If a coast and port are so essential for a refinery, then how come land locked states like Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar and Assam have oil refineries?,” he asked.
In a statement released on Monday, Deshmukh pointed out that inland refineries are operating at Panipat, Bhatinda, Delhi, Bina, Barauni and Guwhati. He had raised the issue of re-drawing plans to shift the proposed large crude oil processing and petrochemical unit from Nanar in Ratnagiri coast to Vidarbha.
“Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari should use their good offices with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to convince them that such a large project with capacity of generating a lakh direct and indirect jobs is required more in the backward Vidarbha region,” the MLA said.
Deshmukh also pointed out that in the last four years, investment proposals of barely Rs10,000 crore for new industries have to come to Vidarbha and that much of it has remained on paper.
“Instead of Magentice Maharashtra, what we need badly is “Vibrant Vidarbha’ drive to attract investors to this region as youth here have to look to other states for jobs,” he said.
Laying a pipeline along the proposed express highway between Mumbai and Nagpur looks feasible to transport crude from coastal Mumbai, Deshmukh added.