PM to Visit Assam, Bengal on Monday

New Delhi, Feb 20: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound Assam and West Bengal on Monday to dedicate to the nation some oil and gas sect or projects, engineering colleges and various railway projects aimed at opening avenues of opportunity for local the youth, in line with the government’s vision to drive eastern India’s socio-economic growth.

During his visit to Assam, the Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation important projects of the oil and gas sector at an event organised in Silapathar at 11.30 a.m., besides inaugurating the Dhemaji Engineering College and laying the foundation stone for Sualkuchi Engineering College.

The Prime Minister will also inaugurate several railway projects in West Bengal’s Hooghly district at around 4.30 p.m.

In Assam, the Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the INDMAX Unit at Indian Oil’s Bongaigaon Refinery, Oil India Limited’s Secondary Tank Farm at Madhuban, Dibrugarh, and a gas compressor station at Hebeda Village in Tinsukia.

The INDMAX unit leverages the technology developed indigenously by the Indian Oil R&D to produce a higher LPG and high-octane gasoline yield from heavy feedstocks. The unit will increase the refinery’s crude processing capacity from 2.35 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) to 2.7 MMTPA. Its commissioning will also significantly enhance LPG production from 50 TMT (thousand metric tonnes) to 257 TMT and petrol production from 210 TMT to 533 TMT.

Oil India Limited’s Secondary Tank Farm has been built for safe storage of about 40,000 kilo litres of crude oil, and the separation of formation water from wet crude oil. The Rs 490 crore project will also have a dehydration unit with an operating capacity of 10,000 kilo litres per day.

The gas compressor station at Makum, Tinsukia, will increase the nation’s crude oil production capacity by nearly 16,500 MT per annum. Built at a cost of Rs 132 crore, the station comprises three low-pressure booster compressors and three high-pressure lifter compressors.

The Dhemaji Engineering College has been built on 276 bighas of land at a cost of about Rs 45 crore. It is the seventh government engineering college in the state which will offer B. Tech courses in civil, mechanical and computer science streams. The Sualkuchi Engineering College will be built on 116 bighas of land at a cost of about Rs 55 crore.

In West Bengal, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the extension of Metro railway from Noapara to Dakshineswar and flag off the first service on this stretch. This 4.1 km extension has been constructed at a cost of Rs 464 crore, fully funded by the Central government.

Modi will also inaugurate a line between Kalaikunda and Jhargram over a stretch of 30 km of the 132 km long Kharagpur-Adityapur Third Line Project of South Eastern Railway, which was sanctioned with an estimated cost of Rs 1,312 crore.

The four stations between Kalaikunda and Jhargram have been redeveloped by constructing four new station buildings, six new foot over bridges and eleven new platforms, along with renovation of the existing infrastructure.

The Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation the doubling of the Azimganj to Khargraghat road section, which is a part of the Howrah-Bandel-Azimganj section of Eastern Railway, which has been laid at a project cost of about Rs 240 crore.

Modi will then dedicate to the nation the fourth line between Dankuni and Baruipara (11.28 km) of Howrah-Bardhaman chord line and the third line between Rasulpur and Magra (42.42 km) of Howrah-Bardhaman main line, which serve as a gateway to Kolkata.

The third line between Rasulpur and Magra has been laid at a cost of Rs 759 crore, while the fourth line between Dankuni and Baruipara has been laid at a project cost of Rs 195 crore.