A Commitment for Holistic Development of the Region

One of the flagship skill development initiatives of NRL is the VK NRL School of Nursing that is doing yeoman service in skilling local girls to become trained nurses, thus providing livelihood opportunities and financial empowerment to them. NRL has also adopted ITI Golaghat as a Centre of Excellence, which is skilling local youth in different vocations and providing employment opportunities. The NRL Football Academy in Numaligarh has identified and nurtured sporting talents among rural boys, giving them a platform to compete in District and State level tournaments. Many more such promising players are being trained to reach their potential and pursue sports as a career option. 

NRL had recently taken the initiative to manufacture Ethanol out of Bamboo. Can you please elaborate on this initiative and its environmental implications?

NRL is setting up the world's first 2G Bamboo to Bioethanol Bio Refinery at Numaligarh through its joint venture company, Assam Bio Refinery Private Limited. NRL holds 50% equity holding in the Company while the remaining 50% is held by Fortum BV3 and Chempolis Oy, Finland. The plant is designed to process 300 TMTPA (thousand metric tons per annum) of Bamboo and shall produce 49 TMTPA of Ethanol along with associated chemicals and power. This project will provide a major boost to the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme of Government of India and contribute in achieving the country's target of 20% Ethanol blending in MS by 2030 (now advanced to 2025-26).

All of this will translate into multiple benefits in terms of enhancing India's energy security by reducing import dependency for India's fuel needs, save foreign exchange and address environmental concerns while uplifting the rural economy by encouraging farmers to adopt cultivation of bamboo on a commercial scale, which is a giant step towards AtmaNirbhar Bharat. It is envisaged that large scale livelihood and employment opportunities will be generated in bamboo farming, harvesting and transportation.

Please elaborate on your Refinery expansion projects.

NRL has embarked on a mega integrated Refinery expansion to treble its capacity from 3.0 MMTPA to 9.0 MMTPA. At an approved project cost of more than Rs. 28,000 Crore, this would be one of the biggest investments in Oil and Gas sector of Northeast India. The project is aligned to the Government of India's Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for the North East, which endeavors to leverage the region's hydrocarbon potential, enhance access to clean fuels, improve availability of petroleum products, facilitate economic development and link common people to the economic activities in this sector. Scheduled to be completed by July 2024, the Refinery expansion project also includes laying of 1630 KM of pipeline from Paradip to Numaligarh along with setting up of a Crude Oil Import Terminal at Paradip in Odisha. Enabling activities for the project including lining of technology, engineering and project consultants, vendors and suppliers have already started. Though the project was initially hampered by the COVID pandemic, of late, the recovery has been satisfactory with major progress in engineering and procurement activities. On ground work related to soil improvement and piling activities are going on full throttle on 24 x 7 basis.

You have recently signed a MoU with Engineers India Limited. Please elaborate on what this MoU envisages to achieve.

NRL has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with EIL on 31st March 2022 for win-win collaborations in knowledge sharing, R & D and commercialisation of technologies. The MoU is aimed at maximizing expertise of both organisations. While EIL is a frontrunner in Refinery and petrochemicals; engineering and project implementation; NRL has a track record of running process units successfully with a list of investment proposals lined up. The MoU will create opportunities to facilitate further improvement in technologies developed by EIL through R & D in the Petroleum and Petrochemicals sector and commercialize them; while NRL would act as a catalyst for such commercialisations. The aforesaid model has been tried and tested in the recent years with successful implementation of NRL's Wax Plant, the single largest manufacturing unit of Wax in the country with indigenous technology provided by EIL and CSIR Indian Institute of Petroleum. EIL had acquired an equity holding of 4.37% in NRL during March 2021, a value addition for NRL. Also, EIL and NRL have a long track record of collaboration dating back to successful implementation and commissioning of Numaligarh Refinery way back in the year 2000, with EIL as consultant for major plant units. EIL is also actively associated as in the ongoing Refinery Expansion project of NRL. With similarity in interests and expertise, NRL and EIL will provide a fillip to the Government of India's Make in India Initiative. The research work will also encompass in developing new specialty chemical products by converting different Bio-Refinery streams of the upcoming 2G Bio Refinery in Numaligarh.

What have been NRL's key contributions (milestones) in terms of the development of the state? (You may please cite your flagship CSR initiatives). What is your vision going forward?

Since its inception, NRL has been conceptualizing and implementing meaningful CSR programmes for holistic development of the community, especially in its neigbourhood. It is our ardent belief that islands of prosperity cannot thrive in oceans of poverty and therefore our focus has been to improve the socio-economic standards of people of our immediate vicinity and operational areas. Further, the Company has also adopted Darrang District, an aspirational District in Assam to carry out its development activities- majorly in the health and education sector. The company's CSR initiatives are well planned and executed in such a way that its beneficiaries are able to reap benefits in the long run. Covering the activities specified under Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013, CSR and Sustainability activities of NRL are pursued along five thrust areas.

Community Health Care and Sanitation: NRL's focus on Community Health remains strong and undeterred, with a major portion of the CSR funds spent in this sector. The VKNRL Hospital located within the NRL Township along with its offshoot OPD in nearby Ponka Village has been the main steer in this direction. NRL's Mobile Medical Health camps conducted at an average cycle of two every day have been able to take quality healthcare to the door steps of the needy in the neighbouring villages of the Refinery. Recognising the plight of cancer patients in the State, NRL has collaborated with the State Government to provide radiology equipment and other equipment to Barpeta Medical College and Hospital and BBCI, Guwahati so that cancer patients do not have to travel outside the state for need of advanced treatment. NRL has been proactively extending its helping hand to the State Government during the COVID pandemic in setting up necessary medical infrastructure and facilities in government hospitals including in Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, Garmur Civil Hospital, Majuli by setting up oxygen plants etc. Other flagship projects in this sector include facilitating free eye screening and cataract operation; empowering and supporting the differently-abled ; providing safe drinking and sanitary toilets to individual households and educational institutes and community places, equipping municipalities of major towns and districts with waste handling equipment etc.

Education and Skill development: Other than providing and renovating school infrastructure, NRL runs quite a few scholarship schemes to encourage and enhance the academic environment in its neighborhood. Also, schemes to achieve 100% literacy have also been rolled out to cover neighbouring villages. One of the flagship skill development initiatives of NRL is the VK NRL School of Nursing that is doing yeoman service in skilling local girls to become trained nurses, thus providing livelihood opportunities and financial empowerment to them. NRL has also adopted ITI Golaghat as a Centre of Excellence, which is skilling local youth in different vocations and providing employment opportunities to them.

Infrastructure development: NRL has developed six Model Villages in the vicinity of the refinery on the premise of easy accessibility through proper road infrastructure, rural electrification through grid and solar power, clean drinking water and hygienic sanitary facilities thereby bringing about discernible improvements in standards of living.

Agri-allied and Income Generation : Continuous interventions in terms of assistance to the farming community by way of engaging experts for sharing technical know-how, linkages to financial institutions for sustaining businesses continue to yield positive results.

Promotion of sports: The NRL Football Academy in Numaligarh has identified and nurtured sporting talents among rural boys, giving them a platform to compete in District and State level tournaments. Many more such promising players are being trained to reach their potential and pursue sports as a career option.

Going forward, our aim to sustain the momentum of our CSR programs and venture to new areas which need our positive intervention.

What are the career opportunities within NRL? Any interdisciplinary fields of employment? How do you as a leading Public Sector Company envisage improving the job prospects and employment scenario of the state and region (especially as far as the educated youth are concerned)?

Like other process industries, NRL does take in Engineering graduates through competitive means in streams ranging from civil, electrical, mechanical, computer science, chemical etc. At times, to populate service functions, management trainees are recruited for different roles. To encourage employment in the State, NRL has contributed meaningfully in creating a startup ecosystem in the North East region through its Start up programme NRL iDEATION. So far, NRL iDEATION has created an impact for 37 startups in stages ranging from 'Proof of Concept' to Scale-up (spanning various sectors) with a total funding of Rs. 8.5 Crore. Moreover, by embarking into a large number of value added projects, NRL is increasing indirect employment opportunities in the state and the region. As mentioned earlier, NRL's JV Company Assam Bio Refinery Private Limited when in full production mode, is expected to support many young entrepreneurs and bamboo growers while sourcing its feedstock.

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