Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is on the brink of a major milestone with the nearing completion of India’s first bamboo-based bio-ethanol project. Set up at an estimated investment of Rs. 4,000 crore, the ethanol facility will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8 during his visit to Numaligarh, reported The Sentimental.
This pioneering initiative, a joint venture between NRL and Fortum (Samplex Oil and Associates), marks the first of its kind in India. Spearheaded by NRL, the refinery successfully carried out a trial production run in December 2024, demonstrating the commercial viability of generating ethanol from bamboo. Construction work is now in its final stages.
Once operational, the facility is expected to process around 3 lakh metric tonnes of bamboo annually, yielding nearly 49,000 metric tonnes of ethanol, in addition to other valuable by-products. To support its operations, the plant will also house a captive 20 MW power generation unit.
The supply chain for raw materials has been strategically divided into four key segments: bamboo growers, harvesters, local entrepreneurs who will manage transport and pre-processing units, and bamboo chip transporters. Bamboo will be sourced from farmers by trained harvesters and then delivered to designated pre-processing centers operated by local business owners. These centers will also function as regional storage hubs. All participants in this supply chain—including farmers—will receive direct payments via electronic bank transfers. This initiative is projected to benefit nearly 30,000 rural households in the region.
Massive Refinery Expansion Underway
Simultaneously, NRL is undergoing a significant expansion, boosting its refining capacity from 3 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA) to 9 MMTPA. More than 80% of the work has already been completed, with full operations expected to begin by the end of the year.
This expansion, with a projected cost of ₹33,901 crore, is designed to meet rising energy demands in Northeast India and facilitate exports to neighboring countries. A new 6 MMTPA unit is being added to process imported crude oil. The upgraded setup will also enable the production of propylene, a key petrochemical feedstock, paving the way for a polypropylene unit and reducing India’s reliance on petrochemical imports.
A key component of the project is a 1,640-kilometre crude oil pipeline being laid from Paradip in Odisha to Numaligarh. Set to be one of the country’s longest, this pipeline will traverse five states—Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Assam—ensuring a steady energy supply to the Northeast and supporting future expansion of other regional refineries. As part of this effort, 14 out of 16 over-dimension and over-weight consignments (ODC/OWC) have already been dispatched. Notably, the pipeline construction included a major engineering accomplishment—laying a 4-km stretch beneath the Ganga River using Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), the longest such installation in India.
The enhanced refining capacity will primarily cater to energy needs in East India—including Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Eastern Uttar Pradesh—while surplus output will be exported to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar via the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL).
Beyond strengthening India’s energy infrastructure, the refinery’s expansion is set to significantly contribute to the economic upliftment of Assam and the broader Northeast. It is expected to stimulate industrial development and generate employment opportunities. Currently, around 8,000 workers are engaged in continuous operations to bring the project to fruition.
