Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has sought Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s “cooperation” for the proposed LPG bottling plant in Khordha. He has urged Patnaik to direct the concerned authorities to allot land for the project.
Expressing his displeasure over the delay in allocation of land for the proposed plant, Pradhan on Friday wrote to Patnaik, “Odisha Government is not supporting in land allocation for Khordha LPG bottling plant.”
The Shree Jagannath Temple Trust (SJTT) has offered the IOCL a land of 32 acres on outright-sale basis in March 2016 for constructing the project at Somnathpur in Khordha district. Based on the demand letter by the SJTT, the IOCL deposited the entire amount of Rs 28.8 crore on March 30, 2017. The demarcation of the land was carried out in December 2017 by the SJTT authorities, and a copy of the same was handed over to the IOCL, Pradhan has pointed out.
Meanwhile, the IOCL has obtained environment clearance on November 5, 2018 and the project has also been cleared under Single Window Clearance on December 6, 2017 from the State Government. The IOCL is prepared to commence the project execution work immediately after receipt of necessary permission for sale deed.
An estimated investment of Rs 150 crore is getting delayed for past 19 months even after full and final payment made by IOCL for land, Pradhan has written.
Notably, there are four LPG bottling plants by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in Odisha.
The firms have already invested Rs 100 crore for augmenting the existing bottling capacity per annum from 1.5 crore cylinders in 2014 to 3 crore cylinders in 2018. Three new LPG bottling plants are also underway at Balangir, Rayagada and Khordha with a total cost of Rs 403 crore and an LPG import terminal at Paradip with a cost of Rs 690 crore.
Besides, IOCL has already commissioned eastern India’s first LPG pipeline with a cost of Rs 365 crore (Paradip-Balasore-Haldia) in Odisha to supply bulk LPG to the Baleswar bottling plant.