Centre will set up a unit in Bihar’s Supaul district on pilot basis for production of ethenol from straw. Also, petroleum products will be produced from garbage. These announcements were made by Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gases Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday, who also annnounced to complete local network of pipeline in Patna for supply of lPG by next Diwali.
Addressing the 90th annual function of Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI) here, Pradhan, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, said the work on Haldia gas pipeline to Patna covering a length of 232 km was almost complete and loal network of laying 1,800 km pipeline in Patna at a cost of Rs 400 crore will soon be completed and to be commissioned exactly after one year.
He said as a pilot project unit would be established in Supaul for prodution of ethenol from straw (puwal) with a capacity of producing petroleum products from 500 tons of straw per day. He referred to the Shell Company’s IH2 technology for production of petroleum products from household garbage. This unit was successfully working in Bangalore and Pradhan said a similar unit could be set up in Patna to make the city clean.
“In the Prime Minister’s announced package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore to Bihar Ministry of Petroleum has a share of 21,000 crore and it will set up diffeent units for production of petroleum products and generate employment for the development of Bihar. I spoke to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and dialogue with the Government will continue for implementation of the projects,” said Pradhan.
He also spoke about prospects of petro chemical complex in Bihar which would also connect the State with Nepal, Bhutan and parts of Bangladesh apart from expanding the petro related industries like polythene, plastic and poly fibre.
Pradhan asked officials of his Ministry to hold workshop in Patna to explore which type of industries could be stablished in Bihar. He also invited the teams of BCCI to visit petro baed industries in other parts of the country and offered that his Ministry would conduct the tour for a first hand experience for cluster development.