Standing Committee of Parliament on S&T Visits Jamnagar Refinery

The committee of Parliament on Science and Technology visited Jamnagar on 18th July, 2011. The committee headed by Mr. Subbarami Reddy, consisted of about 20 members of parliament. The committee was accompanied by senior officials of ministry of Environment & Forest, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Central Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Ecology Commission as well as parliament secretariat.

The high level committee paid exhaustive visits to refineries of Reliance and Essar as well as Vadinar Oil Terminal of IOC and reviewed measures for protection of environment, pollution control and standards of safe operations of these establishments. Senior executives of these organizations greeted the distinguished members. IOC, being the nodal agency, coordinated the visit. The members drove to Reliance where they were welcomed by Mr. Hital R Meswani, the executive director and Mr. Parimal Nathwani, the group president (corporate affairs) of RIL. Mr. Nathwani is also a rajya sabha member.

In his introductory remarks, the chairman of the parliamentary committee spelt out the committee’s main objective. It was to obtain the first hand view of how the mega operations take place in the coastal area and how companies dealing with hydro-carbons and petrochemicals observe and maintain the standards of safety and environment protection; he said.

A marathon meeting was held by the committee with the senior officials. The meeting commenced with all observing a two minutes’ silence in honor of the departed souls who became victims of the bomb blasts at Mumbai on 13th July 2011. An elaborate presentation on working of RIL’s refinery complex, measures for safety and environment protection, corporate social responsibilities etc. was made to the committee. The detailed information about emission levels from refinery, measures to check the pollution, energy efficiency meeting global benchmarks etc were highlights of the discussion during the meeting.

Mr. P K Kapil the director of RIL and a fleet of senior members of RIL team remained present on this occasion, participated in the discussion and answered members’ queries on different aspects of RIL’s working. The members of the committee evinced keen interest in the various aspects of functioning of the world class refinery complex.

Later in the day, the members visited the Reliance Greens – RIL’s township, the occupational health center, etc. They also drove through the refinery complex and viewed the operations from the central control building in the SEZ refinery.

The visiting members of parliament were impressed with the all round greening efforts across the complex. During the visit to Dhirubhai Ambani Lakhibaug which houses more than one lakh mango trees of different indigenous and exotic verities; the members were made to plant a tree each as a token of remembrance to their visit; which was highly appreciated by the distinguished visitors.

The committee visited establishments of Essar and IOC near Vadinar in the evening and witnessed the working of high tech operations. The committee emphasized and advised to all Jamnagar industries dealing with hydrocarbons and petrochemicals to maintain high standards and norms of safety and environment while conducting the world class operations.