Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot would lay foundation-stone of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited’s (BPCl) lPG bottling plant, second in Odisha, at Barkhani village in Balangir district on May 21.
BPCl Regional lPG Manager (East) Atul Kumar told at a Press meet here on Friday that the BPCl aims to commission the bottling unit, to be built at a cost of Rs 103 crore in 23 acres of land, by March 2020.
The unit would have a capacity to produce 4.2 million lPG cylinders per year and cater to the requirement of the consumers in 14 districts of the State -- Balangir, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Sonepur, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Rayagada and Nuapada, he added.
The BPCl is already having an lPG bottling plant at Khordha; and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are having lPG bottling plants at Baleswar, Jharsuguda, Khordha and Jatni with a combined capacity of 2.80 crore cylinders per annum.
In addition to the proposed lPG bottling plant at Balangir, the OMCs have plans to set up new plants at Bhubaneswar and Rayagada also.
The number of lPG consumers in Odisha was 20.22 lakh by June 1, 2014; and it has gone up to 62.17 lakh by May 1, 2018 with an increase in 207.5 per cent during the period. Demand for packed lPG in Odisha was 454.3 million tonnes last year and is expected to rise to 610 million tonnes by 2020.
The BPCl has 15.37 lakhs customers who consume 78 lakh cylinders in a year and the consumption is expected to increase to 105 lakh cylinders by 2020.
Kumar said with the lPG demand growing in the State particularly in the western and south-western Odisha, need for putting up a new bottling plant was felt and the historical town of Balangir was chosen for locating the plant considering the logistics advantage of the location.
Balangir MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, leader of Opposition in State Assembly Narasingha Mishra and Patnagarh MlA Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo would be present at the foundation-stone laying ceremony, Kumar added.
Among others, BPCl DGM (Brand and PR) SS Sundararajan, State head retail (Odisha and Jharkhand) Debashis Palit, head infrastructure T/F (east) Manas Mohanty, project facilitator E and P Dilip Kumar Mandal and Odisha State head lPG Sanjay Sharma were present.