BOOM TOWN IN THE DESERT

A SLEEPY TEHSIL TOWN KNOWN FOR ITS SALT PANS IS EMERGING AS A DRIVER OF GROWTH IN THE THAR DESERT AS WORK ON INDIA’S FIRST INTEGRATED Rs 65,000 CRORE HRRL REFINERY AND PETROCHEMICAL COMPLEX PROCEEDS APACE

- ROHIT PARIHAR in Barmer

A DECADE AGO, A BLINK-AND-YOU-MISS-IT signboard is all that announced Pachpadra, located somewhere between Barmer and Jodhpur on desert highway NH-112. Half a dozen shops and two dhabas were the only things visible as the dust kicked up in the endless sprawl of the Thar. Today, there are at least 200 shops lined up on either side of the road. Every day is like a haat, as shoppers mill around and dozens of under construction multistorey buildings create a new skyline.

The Pachpadra tehsil headquarters, part of Barmer district in Rajasthan, is in a traditionally vegetarian part of Rajasthan, but ‘fish and meat’ shops are flourishing, catering to the workers from other states. Most times during the day, the highway and village lanes are choked; some 2,000 vehicles frequent the upcoming HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Ltd and Petro Chemicals Complex here every day.

The joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and the Rajasthan government (on a 76:24 share basis), coming up on 4,100 acres of land here, was first conceived in March 2013. A dream project of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the change in government the next year nearly shelved the project.

HPCL used the fallow four-year period before the project was greenlighted again in 2018 to kickstart a number of pre-project activities such as finishing the pre-construction modalities and building basic infrastructure. “CM Gehlot has been monitoring the project…despite the hiccups during the lockdown last year, the refinery should start production sometime in 2023,” says Subodh Agarwal, additional chief secretary, petroleum, mines and energy, Rajasthan. However, there is a likely cost overrun now, beyond the estimated Rs 65,000 crore.