New ED takes charge at IOC Gujarat refinery

K K Acharya is taking charge as executive director of Gujarat Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) from Monday.

He is being transferred to Koyli-based Gujarat Refinery from Delhi headquarters following the transfer of B N Bankapur in the aftermath of explosion in the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) of the refinery.

No one was surprised by the transfer of ED and the core production team considering the loss due to the blast.

In fact, well placed sources in IOC are surprised at the time taken for initiating action against the senior officials.

Ironically, two days before the blast on October 27, Bankapur had accepted Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award for 2003 on behalf of IOC from Sharad Pawar, Union minister for agriculture, consumer affairs and public distribution.

The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award has been instituted by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to encourage Indian manufacturing and service organisations to compete effectively in global market through strategic planning and quality improvement.

It may be noted that Bankapur was in Delhi when the blast in a slurry settler of FCCU at Gujarat Refinery rocked IOC and surrounding villages in about 10 km radius on the early morning of October 29. Meanwhile, the restoration of FCCU is in full swing. The dismantling work of the damaged structure has taken around a month.

"The restoration contract has been awarded to Larsen and Toubro (L&T) in association with Engineers India Ltd (EIL) as project consultant. The operations at FCCU are likely to be resumed within four months," said V K Pandey, manager, corporate communications, IOC.

However, IOC has not divulged the cost of restoration and the loss caused due to the blast yet. Earlier, the commissioner of Vadodara city police, Sudhir Sinha had stated that the damage could be estimated at around Rs 1,000 crore.

The Forensic Science Laboratory is investigating the FCCU explosion case which took lives of two contract workers.