Petro-chemical industries are vital for the economy. These are produced from natural gas, naptha, alcohol and calcium carbide.
The industry made a beginning in India with the setting up of a small naptha cracker unit at Mumbai in the private sector.
Major plants are located at Auraiya (U.E), Jamnagar, Nagothane, Gandhar and Haldia. There are three organizations in the petro-chemical sector (i) Indian Petro-chemicals corporation Limited (IPCL), a public sector undertaking, incorporated in 1969 is responsible for manufacture and distribution of various petro-chemicals like polymers, synthetic organic chemicals, fibres and fibre intermediates, (ii) Petrofils Cooperative Ltd.
(PCL), a joint venture of the Central Government and Weavers’ Cooperative societies, produces polyester filament yarn and nylon chips at its two plants located at Vadodara and Naldhari in Gujarat, (iii) The Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) Chennai established in 1968.
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The Petro-chemical production has experienced a phenomenal increase in the country.
It was 3792 kilotonnes in 1998-99, which rose to
4623 kilotonnes in 1999-2000, thus achieved a growth of 16% over a year’s time. The demand for petrochemical is witnessing a sharpup ward trend on account of its demand which has arisen due to a lot of factors like:
1. Better standard of living of people in India.
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2. Development of automobile industries.
3. Use of agricultural machines in farming operations etc.
The Haldia petro-chemical Ltd. has set up a plant at Gandhar to manufacture ethylene.
The Reliance Industry Ltd. has set up a plant at Jamnagar (Gujarat) for the production of paraxylene.
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Export market of petro chemical has yet to catch up momentum.
At present there are 12 extension Centres of CIPET (Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and technology) at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Imphal, Mysore, Lucknow, Haldia and Guwahati. The Patna, Haldia and Guwahati arc under Project stage for the time being and hope to start function in the near future.