In a rare case of migration from a city to a village, Teeja Jakhar shifted to Chokhla from Barmer city along with her two daughters last year. Her husband was employed outside Rajasthan and she had chosen Barmer to provide a good education to her children. But Mangla near Barmer, since January last year the site of India's biggest oil discovery in 22 years, changed all that. The British exploration company Cairn Energy PLC promised to pay her Rs 3 lakh per year for three years for rights to her land. She bought a diesel-run tubewell with the first instalment and plans to grow at least one crop on her 40-acre plot. She earns Rs 6,000 per month by selling water drawn by her tubewell to Cairn. This is almost equal to the amount sent by her husband earlier to run the family. Cairn has paid a total of Rs 22.5 crore to over a thousand people for acquiring their land for drilling or right of way. Villagers hope the oil find will compel the Government to electrify the area too. Tubewells run on power will make cultivation cheaper.

Liquid gold has made a godforsaken place like Barmer glitter. "It is no longer a place for punishment postings," says A.C. Bhatt, district collector, Barmer. "While earlier there were no avenues to expand economic activities, now there are options to supplement one's income." The economy earlier rested on land and cattle, both depending upon scarce and unpredictable rain to generate a sustainable income. But Bhatt says Barmer has improved from a sick district two years ago to a developing one. Oil exploration has created jobs in a big way. In the past three years, construction of the drill site has generated one lakh man days of local employment and seismic surveys another 85,000 man days.

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WIN-WIN: (From left) Aiyar, Cairn CEO Bill Gammell and Raje	BOOSTER: The oil discovery has created jobs for local people

Until now, Barmer was known for its dying art of carving on wooden furniture, mirror work and the ancient Kiradu temples. But the district, which has a population of 19 lakh, has been hogging the headlines in Rajasthan dailies since Cairn struck oil there. Production of 80,000 barrels of oil a day is expected to start by the end of 2007. This output may last 25 years but deadlines and quantity can change either way. Cairn has made 10 hydrocarbon discoveries over an area of 1,858 sq km with the current focus on an 856 sq km area located 60 km north of Barmer. It says the estimated cost of exploration is Rs 1,250 crore.

Expectations among local people have shot up. On April 26, some of them sat on a dharna demanding a larger role in Cairn's operations. With politicians, including Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, rooting for an oil refinery at Barmer, they dream of the district evolving into a Dubai. David Nisbet, head of group communications at Cairn, says it is natural for people to have such dreams. "It is all about managing expectations and that is what we are doing too," he told india today. The company holds monthly meetings with the local administration, conducts public hearings on issues such as the effect of oil exploration on sweet groundwater and does development work in the region-like improving a government school near the Mangla oil field and assisting medical camps. Also on the anvil are four water harvesting projects-essential as people suspect that oil exploration may adversely affect water levels. Cairn, however, insists that it needs only saline water.

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Subcontractor Lakha Ram Chaudhary

The spin-offs span a wide area. To facilitate its operations, Cairn laid 250 km of tracks and semi-laid paths to connect villages with the main roads. It tied up with a private cell operator to provide networking in its area of operation. Very soon, its subcontractors involved in bringing water and hiring labour bought cell phones too. Bhatt says he has come to know of a lot of cases where compensation money has made city education affordable for students or allowed for the traditional investment in jewellery.

Change is also sweeping through Barmer city. Till now used to visits by jawans of the army and BSF, the sudden increase in arrivals related to the oil find has boosted the hotel and travel industries. The number of hotels has increased from two to six. Simultaneously, the number of airconditioned rooms has increased and hotels are often overbooked. "Our occupancy has doubled," says Nilesh Mehta of Kailash Sarovar hotel. New restaurants have come up, many dhabas have expanded and a mini-resort has become the office of Cairn. Locals are employed as drivers. Ashok Mankad, who specialises in carved furniture, gets more visitors at his shop than earlier and says he can sense money pouring into the market. A lot of functions related to oil exploration activities have been organised-Raje herself has attended two oil field naming ceremonies in recent months along with Union ministers like Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

The setting up of a refinery hinges on political factors, but Barmer can definitely look forward to commercial production of oil and a network for its transportation. This promises to change the economic landscape in a big way. It may not become a Dubai, but could certainly become one of the prominent cities of Rajasthan in two decades.

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