MRPL records Rs 500 cr loss in first quarter; water scarcity in Mangaluru one of the reasons

coastaldigest.com news network
August 4, 2019

Mangaluru, Aug 4: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has recorded loss of Rs 500 crore in the first quarter of 2019-20 as against a net profit of Rs 361.96 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

Addressing presspersons in Mangaluru on Saturday, Shashi Shanker, Chairman of MRPL, said the water scarcity in Mangaluru during the period led to force major shutdown of some of the refinery units. 

In addition to that there was a planned shutdown of the refinery units. These factors affected the bottom line and top line of the company during the first quarter.

The gross refining margin (GRM) of the company stood at $(-)0.42 a barrel during the first quarter of 2019-20 as against $8.28 a barrel in the corresponding period of 2018-19.

M Venkatesh, Managing Director of MRPL, said the unprecedented water scarcity affected the operation in the refinery complex for more than a month and a half. This is one of the reasons for the negative GRM during the quarter.

Stating that things are going to improve in the remaining three quarters of 2019-20, he said the company is setting up a seawater de-salination plant with an investment of ₹620 crore. The plant is likely to be ready by September 2020.

“We have plans in place for tackling the summer. We are trying to get some temporary desalination facilities to generate as much as possible for the period of four-five months and try and reduce the impact, if any,” he said. The company is also focusing on increasing the use of domestic sewage.

MRPL’s gross revenue from operations stood at ₹11,200 crore during the Q1 of 2019-20 as against ₹16,583 crore in the corresponding period of 2018-19.

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News Network
May 8,2020

Mangaluru, May 8: Migrant workers, stranded in Karnataka due to lockdown, staged a protest on Friday at the Central Railway Station here, demanding to be sent back to their respective native places.

The workers demanded the state government to take measures and send them back to their homes.

Maintaining social distancing and covering their faces with masks, the workers were holding placards which read -- "We want to go home Jharkhand, We want justice and we want to go home."

They appealed to the state government to arrange trains and buses to ferry them to their native places and threatened to walk home if denied transport.

Several protests have erupted in different parts of the country, such as Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, as stranded labourers took to the roads demanding to be sent back home.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 had issued an order to extend the ongoing lockdown by two more weeks from May 4 with some relaxations.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 8,2020

Mangaluru, July 8: Dakshina Kannada on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases with 183 cases reported in the district, while Udupi reported 31 new cases.

DK also recorded two more fatalities – both patients with co-morbid conditions — taking the total death toll in the district to 28. Udupi has recorded three Covid-19 deaths.

The fresh spike saw total positive cases in DK shoot up to 1,542 and active cases to 819. As many as 12 patients were discharged from hospital on Wednesday. The positivity rate in the district now stands at 0.07 %. Health authorities as on date have received 22,181 samples and 20,153 out of 21,695 samples tested have turned out negative.

MLA’s gunman tests positive

The gunman assigned to former minister U T Khader tested positive on Wednesday and three others who were with him in the escort vehicle have been quarantined, said city police commissioner Vikash Kumar Vikash. A section of police commissioner’s office was shut for sanitisation as per protocol after staff working there were treated as primary contacts. The office per se has not been sealed contrary to ‘reports’ doing rounds in social media, he said.

Deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said the district reported two deaths — one late on Tuesday and the other during the day. The victims are a 57-year-old man and 32-year-old youth. Two of the 183 cases were secondary contacts, 25 were cases of influenza like illness, four cases of SARI, one a case of inter district travel, two with interstate travel, five with international travel history, 22 random samples and five pre-surgery samples.

Udupi district recorded 31 new cases taking the total positive cases recorded as on date to 1,421. Discharge of 1,189 patients meant that Udupi has 229 active cases.

Meanwhile, Kota Shrinivas Poojari, minister for fisheries on Wednesday inaugurated the Covid-19 lab at district hospital in Udupi. Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar inaugurated ambulance monitoring system to ensure expeditious transfer of infected patients to designated treatment centres.

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News Network
April 20,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 20: The Dakshina Kannada district administration had declared certain areas in the district as containment zones after COVID-19 positive cases were detected from there.

A seal down has been declared in these zones, completely banning all movement of the people including leaving their houses.

In Ajjavara, Sullia taluk a one-kilometre containment zone has been set up on April 19.

The zone stretches from Ankotimar Road and includes Forest agriculture land and the residences of Savera and Achar.

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