Odisha Congress seeks a timeline for Chandikhol Crude Oil Storage Project

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress spokesperson and research analyst Jagadananda Pradhan said the project, originally conceived during the UPA government led by former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, has been repeatedly used as an electoral issue without any tangible progress on the ground.

Pradhan said the Chandikhol project is proposed to have a storage capacity of nearly 30 million barrels of crude oil.

While the government has projected employment opportunities for around 5,000 people after the project becomes operational, he claimed the actual employment potential could be between 8,000 and 10,000 jobs.

The Congress questioned the steps taken by the government for compensation, rehabilitation and employment of people likely to be displaced or affected by the project.

Alleging negligence by the present NDA government, Pradhan claimed that no new crude oil storage capacity has been created in the country during the last eleven years and asserted that all existing strategic crude oil storage facilities were established during the Congress-led UPA regime.

He said the UPA government had already initiated expansion projects at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur, with a combined storage capacity of 5.33 million metric tonnes, but alleged that the NDA government has failed to complete those projects.

According to Pradhan, the process for the Chandikhol crude oil storage project had already begun in 2013 after submission of the feasibility report during the Congress regime.