Guwahati: The newly built NRL Centre – the Corporate Office Building of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) was officially inaugurated by Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, Hardeep S. Puri in the presence of Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour and Employment, Government of India, Rameswar Teli.

The Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, Hardeep S. Puri, in the presence of Chief Minister of Assam, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour and Employment, Government of India, Rameswar Teli, presided over a run-up event to the India Energy week (IEW) 2023 in Guwahati on Monday.

Speaking at the inaugural event, several big projects in the sector are also in the pipeline in the region.

During the event, the union minister interacted with the farmers who are supplying bamboo on a sustainable basis to Assam Bio-Refinery, the first of its kind 2G Bio Refinery with bamboo biomass as feedstock is being implemented by Numaligarh Refinery Limited.

Assam CM during the inauguration stated that the new building will greatly help in effective functioning of the energy PSU.

The Ministers also flagged off a fleet of EV scooters by BIKOZEE, a hyper-local logistic Start-up supported by NRL. The Start-up as an eco-friendly venture, consists of an electric mobility option to combat environmental factors such as climate changes, unplanned urbanization and increasing pollution rates. It aims for a carbon emission-free world using renewable energy only.

Thereafter, the petroleum and natural gas minister, Assam Chief Minister, and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour and Employment was also present at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and the Assam government to set up three bamboo nurseries that were signed on the occasion.

The nurseries will cover an area, of five hectares to accomplish secondary hardening of tissue-cultured bamboo saplings and increase the number of saplings using macro proliferation methods. The three nurseries will be set up in Golaghat, Nagaon and Sonitpur in Assam.

IEW 2023 is the first major event held under India's G20 Presidency; India Energy Week follows the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledge at COP26 to cut India's emissions to net zero by 2070. Held under the patronage of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, India Energy Week is the only all-encompassing international energy event supported at the highest level of the Indian government, with participation from all the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), and officially supported by the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI).

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