Balangir LPG Bottling Plant to be dedicated to the Nation by Vice President Dec 27
Total cost of the project is Rs. 103 Crores.
BY MAHENDRA KUMAR DARJEE
Balangir, Dec. 24: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a Maharatna PSU under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has set up a new state of the art LPG Bottling Plant at Village Barkani, District Balangir in Odisha State. BPCL is already having a LPG Bottling Plant at Khurda. For BPCL, the new plant that has been constructed at Balangir will be the second in the State of Odisha. Oil Marketing Companies are having LPG Bottling Plants at Balasore, Jharsuguda, Khurda and Jatni. The bottling capacity in 2014 was 1.48 crores cylinders while now in 2019 it is 2.96 crores cylinders. In addition to the proposed LPG Bottling Plant at Balangir, Oil Marketing Companies have plans to set up new plants at Khurda 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.
The foundation stone of Balangir LPG Bottling Plant was laid on 21st May 2018 by Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel. This plant has been completed in a record 19 months and will be dedicated to the Nation by Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Hon’ble Vice President of India, in the presence of Prof Ganeshi Lal, Governor, Odisha, Shri Naveen Pattnaik, Chief Minister, Odisha Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel, Smt. Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Member of Parliament, Balangir & Shri Narasingha Mishra, Member of Legislative Assembly, Balangir and dignitaries from the state and officials of BPCL on 27th December, 2019.
LPG consumers in Odisha state were 20.22 lakhs in 2014 and have grown up to 88.10 lakhs in 2019 which is an increase of customer base by 335.71% during this 5 year period. The demand for packed LPG in Odisha was 454.3 TMT (Thousand Metric Tons) last year which is expected to be 610 TMT by end of 2020. The LPG Penetration in the State of Odisha was 20 % in 2014 which has increased to 81.3% by 2019 thus an increase of 61.3% in penetration. The number of distributors in the State of Odisha was 367 in 2014 which has increased to 932 till 2019 thus an addition of 565 new distributorships in last 4 years i.e. Increase of around 154%.
The LPG consumers in Balangir were 0.4 lakhs in 2014 and have grown up to 3.62 lakhs in 2019 which is an increase of customer base by 804.22 % during this 5 year period. The LPG Penetration in the Balangir district was 9.1 % in 2014 which has increased to 74.7% by 2019 thus an increase of 65.6% in penetration. The number of distributors in Balangir district was 18 in 2014 which has increased to 38 till 2019 thus an addition of 20 new distributorships in last 4 years i.e. Increase of around 111%.
Amongst the Oil Marketing Companies, BPCL itself has 21.59 lakhs customers till now who consume approximately 78 lakh cylinders in a year. This consumption is expected to increase from 78 lakh cylinders to 105 lakh cylinders by end of 2020.
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.
The state of the art LPG Plant at Balangir in the village Barkani is around 12 kms from Balangir Railway station. The plant is spread over 23 acres and have the capacity to produce 42 lakh cylinders per year. This plant will house facilities like 24 station Electronic Carousel, Fire water Tanks of 1853KL capacity each, Filling & Filled shed, 8 Bay Tank lorry Decantation gantry and 3 x 300 MT (Metric Tons) Mounded Storage Vessel, etc., The plant will be operational after the inauguration. Balangir Plant once commissioned shall supply LPG cylinders to the consumers in 14 districts of Odisha namely: Balangir, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Sonepur Koraput, Malkangiri, Nowrangpur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Raygada and Nuapada.
