Ratnagiri Refinery Project

Ajit Pawar, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, on Tuesday demanded that the protests by locals against a refinery project in Ratnagiri district be handled with sensitivity and that the state government stop the survey work till there is a solution through peaceful means. In a statement, Pawar said suppressing the voice of journalists reporting on protests against the refinery project at Barsu in the district must be stopped. Everyone has the right to protest in a democracy. The protesters are being arrested. The government should respect the sentiments of the locals and deal with the issue showing sensitivity, he said in the statement. Pawar said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis should find a solution through dialogue. Till that time, the survey (for the refinery project) should be stopped, Pawar added. The refinery project was initially planned at Nanar in the district. Following protests by locals earlier, the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray

Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals (RRPCL), which is setting up the ambitious Nanar refinery project, hopes to commence physical work in January 2020 despite protests by the farmers and the Shiv Sena's strong opposition to the world's largest refinery project. The statement assumes importance as the BJP-run state government had in November ordered a halt on land acquisition for the project, in view of the increasing protest by the locals-- farmers and fishermen, who will be losing their livelihood and the rising support they are getting from the ruling party ally Shiv Sena and other Opposition parties. The 60-million tonne per annum refinery-cum- petrochemical complex is estimated to cost of Rs 3 trillion, and will come up in over 15,000 acres in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of the Konkan region of Maharashtra. The project, to come up at Babulwadi village, would be the world's largest green-field refinery-cum-petrochemical complex when commissioned and would .

Saudi Aramco had in April signed an agreement to take up to 50 per cent stake in the Ratnagiri refinery project

He said that Fadnavis, without fear, should have opposed the project since it "meted out injustice to his people"

Uddhav Thackeray had recently met Fadnavis to convey his party's concerns over the Rs 1.5-trillion mega refinery and petrochemical complex

IOC, HPCL, BPCL are in process of registering a firm to execute $40-bn refinery project