Gregory Patrao's Land Dispute Costs Rs 600 Cr for MRPL
NEW DELHI, Jul 20 (PTI): Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), an ONGC group company, today said its expansion programme has got stuck due to a land dispute with a local farmer in Mangalore resulting in a loss of Rs 600 crore.
The disputed land belongs to Gregory Patrao, a local farmer, who is not willing to vacate his ancestral 14 acres despite losing his case in the Karnataka High Court, the company said in a statement.
After the high court order, the land was acquired by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) on April 28 this year for the development of third phase of MRPL.
However, due to protests from Patrao, it is yet to be handed over to MRPL.
"It is a matter of concern that the Project cannot be commissioned in its totality without the Patrao family land and non availability of the same, in time, could severely affect the project completion and may have a further huge impact on the overall financials of the Project," it said.
The statement added that due to the non-availability of land, "the loss incurred has been around Rs 600 crore so far."
The total expansion project is spread over nearly 700 acres and land required from the farmers are about 282 acres.
Of this, 268 acres of land has been handed over to the MRPL by KIADB and the company has finished 46 per cent of expansion work amounting to Rs 9,638 crore by May this year.
The mini-ratna company's phase three expansion cum upgradation project will increase its refining capacity by an additional 3 million tonnes per annum, involving a total cost of Rs 15,000 crore. The target for mechanical completion is October 2011.