Mathura, Nov 26 (PTI) Indian Oil Corporation's Mathura refinery has received environmental clearance for projects to expand its crude processing capacity to 11 mmtpa, a senior official of the refinery said on Friday.

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Mathura Refinery has processing capacity of 8 mmtpa, at present.

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The refinery has been accorded environmental clearance for residue upgradation and distillate yield improvement project with 11 MMTPA crude processing, Mathura Refinery head and executive director Asis Kumar Maiti told PTI.

"The environmental clearance was given on November 22 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change impact assessment division,” Maiti said.

He said the proposal would generate employment opportunities (direct and indirect).

Mathura Refinery, since inception, has shown its concern for the environment through plantation and reducing sulphur content in diesel and petrol produced at the unit, officials stated. It has set up air monitoring stations at Farah, Keetham, Sikandara and Bharatpur to ascertain air quality in the area.

The refinery has undertaken projects to upgrade its diesel and gasoline units to bring down sulphur level by nearly 80 per cent, Maiti said.

With the commissioning of these facilities, Mathura Refinery is now supplying 100 per cent of its MS (petrol) and HSD (diesel) meeting BSVI norms, the officials added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)