Odisha will have 7 LPG bottling plants; BPCL’s second at Balangir

Bhubaneswar: With Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) setting up an LPG bottling plant in Balangir district, Odisha will have a total seven LPG bottling plants in next couple of years.

The BPCL is setting up an LPG bottling plant at Barkhani in Balangir district to cater to the consumers of 14 districts in western Odisha, said BPCL regional manager (East) Atul Kumar.

The BPCL bottling plant will be set up with an investment of Rs 103 crore. It is expected that the plant will be commissioned by March 2020, said Kumar.

The plant will be spread over 23 acres and will have the capacity to produce 42 lakh cylinders per year.

This will be second LPG bottling plant of the company. BPCL is already having an LPG Bottling Plant at Khurda.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot are scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the plant on May 21.

Balangir MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra and Patnagarh MLA Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo are slated to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony.

Oil marketing companies are having LPG bottling plants at Balasore, Jharsuguda, Khurda and Jatni. The current bottling capacity of these 4 plants is 2.80 Crores cylinders per annum.

In addition to the proposed LPG bottling plant at Balangir, oil marketing companies have plans to set up new plants at Bhubaneswar and Rayagada.

Odisha will have a total of 7 LPG Bottling Plants once all the new plants are completed.

The bottling capacity of these 7 bottling plants will be 4.06 crores cylinders per annum.

LPG consumers in Odisha were 20.22 lakh on 1 June 2014 and have grown up to 62.17 lakhs on 1 May 2018 which is an increase of customer base by 207.5% during this period.

The demand for packed LPG in Odisha was 454.3 thousand metric tonne (TMT) last year which is expected to be 610 TMT by 2020.

BPCL has 15.37 lakhs customers who consume 78 lakh cylinders in a year. This consumption is expected to increase to 105 lakh cylinders by 2020.

“With the LPG demand growing in the state particularly in the Western and South-western Odisha, the 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,” said Manas Mohanty, Head Infrastructure T/F (East).

Balangir Plant once commissioned shall be supplying LPG cylinders to the consumers in 14 districts of Odisha-Balangir, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Sonepur Koraput, Malkangiri, Nowrangpur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Raygada and Nuapada.