GAIL shuts Pata petrochemical plant

State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd has shut its petrochemical plant at Pata in Uttar Pradesh, joining a host of petchem makers who have been forced to shut units as the unprecedented nationwide lockdown evaporated demand and created transportation hurdles. GAIL first cut capacity of the 400,000 tonnes a year polyethylene plant at its Pata complex by half as two-thirds of trucks that used to transport finished products to users stopped operations soon after the lockdown was imposed, sources privy to the development said.

But with polymers it produces filling every inch of space in its godowns, GAIL last week shut the plant, they said, adding the company continued to operate the LPG production unit at Pata to meet the cooking fuel demand in the country.