PM Modi to launch several projects in poll bound Assam, West Bengal today

New Delhi, Feb 22: Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will visit poll bound West Bengal and Assam and dedicate to the nation pile and gas sector projects, engineering colleges and railway projects.

During his visit to Assam the PM will dedicate projects of the oil sector at an event organised at Silapathar at 11.30 am, besides inaugurating the Dhemaji Engineering College and laying the foundation stone for Sualkuchi Engineering College.

The PM will also inaugurate several railway projects in West Bengal's Hooghly district at 4.30 pm. PM Modi will inaugurate the INDMAX unit at Indian Oil's Bongaigaon refinery, Oil India Limited's secondary tank farm at Dibrugarh and a gas compressor station at Hebeda village in Tinsukia, the Prime Minister's Office said.

He will inaugurate the Dhemaji Engineering College and lay the foundation stone for Sualkuchi Engineering College. In Assam, the Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the INDMAX Unit at Indian Oil's Bongaigaon Refinery, Oil India Limiteds 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 refinerys 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, the PMO said.

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.

In Bengal, the prime minister will inaugurate the extension of the metro railway from Noapara to Dakshineswar, and flag off the first service on this stretch.

The PMO said this 4.1-km extension has been constructed at a cost of ₹464 crore and is fully funded by the central government.

This extension will ease up access to the two world famous Kali temples at Kalighat and Dakshineswar for lakhs of tourists and devotees.

Modi will also inaugurate a third 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 ₹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 PMO said.

This will help ensure seamless movement of passenger and freight trains on Howrah-Mumbai trunk route, it added.