IndianOil problems with Koyali expansion
IndianOil has been forced to turn to the Gujarat government’s slow-moving land acquisition process so it can go ahead with the Rs4858cr ($872m) expansion of one of India’s oldest refineries.
Landowners near IndianOil’s 13.7m t/y Koyali refinery are unwilling to sell the company the 55 acres it desperately needs for a proposed expansion to 18m t/y. Last month IOC appointed Hyderabad-based Mescon Survey Services to carry out an initial land survey at nearby Bajwa village in Vadodara district.
“IOC wanted to acquire land by ‘consent’ from landowners at a mutually agreed rate,” says a source. “But that didn’t work out.
” Gujarat state authorities must decide the appropriate compensation payments and are likely to direct IOC to pay out over Rs88cr ($16m) to landowners. Koyali sprawls over 1424 acres.
Set up with technical assistance from the former Soviet Union, it was commissioned in October 1965 with an initial capacity of only 2m t/y.
