New Delhi: A major fire has erupted at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited’s (HPCL) Pachpadra refinery in Rajasthan on Monday, just a day before it was supposed to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Videos that emerged on social media platform X showed a humongous blanket of smoke rising out of the refinery complex. In a post on X, HPCL said, “A fire incident occurred in one of the crude processing units of HPCL’s Visakh Refinery at 3pm on 25th May 2021. Safety measures & firefighting was activated immediately. The fire has been extingushed. There is no casualty & no risk to Public.”
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It is learnt that due to the fire incident, the Prime Minister’s visit to the refinery and its inauguration scheduled for April 21 have now been postponed. In a post on X, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said on Monday, “Due to an unfortunate fire incident today in the vicinity of the Crude Distillation Unit at the HRRL refinery, the scheduled dedication of the refinery by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 21.04.2026 has been postponed.” It added, “A revised date for the dedication will be announced in due course.”
In a separate post on X, Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma said, “The incident of a fire breaking out at the HPCL Rajasthan Refinery located in Pachpadra is extremely unfortunate. In this regard, I have promptly spoken with administrative officials and refinery management to obtain detailed information about the situation. Currently, the situation is fully under control. Keeping safety standards as the top priority, the proposed visit by the Honorable Prime Minister has been postponed for now.”
Stating that the situation has been brought under control, the Petroleum Ministry said that an investigation has been initiated into the incident. “The fire has been brought under control. There are no reports of any casualties. An investigation has been initiated to ascertain the cause(s) of the incident and to undertake necessary remedial measures,” the ministry said on X.
In a separate post, the Rajasthan CM said, “Instructions have been issued for a high-level investigation into this incident. The grand inauguration of this refinery, which is a symbol of hope for all the people of the state, will soon be carried out by the Honorable Prime Minister himself.”
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The Pachpadra refinery was India’s first greenfield refinery, developed jointly by HPCL and the Rajasthan government. The 9-MMTPA greenfield refinery-cum-petrochemical complex, termed the “Gem of the Desert,” was set to commence commercial operations in July. The project was developed at a cost of Rs 79,450 crore. In addition to fuel production, the complex included petrochemical manufacturing capacity of 2.4 MMTPA. It is configured with a Nelson Complexity Index of 17.0 and petrochemical yields of over 26 percent, placing it among globally comparable high-conversion facilities.
