A significant fire broke out at the HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL) in Pachpadra, Balotra district of Rajasthan, on Monday afternoon, forcing authorities to postpone Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned inauguration of the facility.
The blaze erupted around 1:55 pm near the crude distillation unit (CDU) of the refinery. According to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas posted on X, the fire was quickly brought under control by the refinery’s emergency response team with assistance from local administration. Officials confirmed there were no casualties or injuries. Most of the approximately 200 workers in the affected units were having lunch at the time of the incident.
Preliminary assessments indicated that the fire likely originated from a leakage of hydrocarbons from a valve or flange in the heat exchanger circuit. The flames remained confined to the heat exchanger stack within the CDU section. Authorities promptly isolated the crude distillation unit, vacuum distillation unit, and associated facilities, all of which were reported structurally safe and undamaged beyond the localised area. No other sections of the refinery complex were affected.
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More than 100 fire tenders were deployed to douse the blaze, which was contained by around 2:30 pm.
The Ministry announced that an investigation has been initiated to determine the exact cause of the incident and implement remedial measures. A revised date for the dedication of the refinery will be announced later.
HRRL is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (74 per cent equity) and the Rajasthan government (26 per cent). The Union Cabinet had recently approved a substantial cost escalation for the greenfield integrated refinery-petrochemical complex, raising it from Rs 43,129 crore to Rs 79,459 crore, with commercial operations originally targeted to begin from July 1.
The inauguration, earlier rescheduled from March 19 to April 21, had been anticipated to mark a key milestone for the project, whose foundation stone was laid by Sonia Gandhi in 2013 and again by PM Modi in 2018.
