Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has made an “unusual” request to the Government. It wants to lay a pipe-rack through the Jamnagar Special Economic Zone to connect the company’s domestic refinery with its Rs 20,000-crore plant.

Neither the refinery nor the complex is part of the Jamnagar SEZ. “Since the SEZ is a deemed foreign territory and investments within the zone are subject to different rules, strong safeguards need to be in place if the pipe-rack is allowed to run through the zone,” a Commerce Department official told Business Line .

In its representation, RIL has pleaded that if denied permission the pipeline would have to take a longer route pipeline that can create operational and safety hazards.

The company said the proposal deserves support in the light of the Cabinet Committee of Investment’s decision to fasttrack clearance for projects with investments over Rs 1,000 crore. RIL plans to pump in Rs 20,000 crore in the C2 complex, producing chemicals such as ethylene.

The proposal will be taken up by the Board of Approval for SEZs — the inter-ministerial body that decides on most issues pertaining to SEZs — at its meeting on March 15.

The Unit Approval Committee of the Zone, a lower body comprising the development commissioner of a particular Zone and Customs officials, discussed the proposal at a meeting last month and came up with a set of safeguards before forwarding it to the BoA.

The Committee had proposed that it must be ensured that no duty-free material is used for construction of pipe-racks and for laying the pipes. “Till now, permissions have been given for laying of water and sewage pipes but that did not have anything to do with business interests,” pointed out Hitender Mehta, SEZ expert and partner in legal firm Vaish Associates.

>amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in

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