Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) will be setting up an LPG Bottling Plant at Gopalpur in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, officials informed.
LPG from IOCL Raipur and GAIL unit in Guna ( Madhya Pradesh) will be received through bullet trucks and stored in mounded bullets of capacity 3 x 600MT (total 1800MT). LPG will be pumped from storage bullets to filling shed where cylinders will be filled prior to dispatch through road, they informed.
The IOCL has also proposed to set up a LPG Bottling plant as part of its expansion project at Siltara near Raipur.
The bottling plant had been proposed on 26.93 acres of land , officials informed.
The proposed storage is to be constructed on existing land acquired by IOCL from CSIDC.
On the other hand, the Chhattisgarh government has already signed a MOU with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) for developing piped gas infrastructure.
The IOCL is in process of conducting techno-economical study for the planned gas pipeline. This bottling plant will make available clean cooking fuel to the households in the State.
Moreover, this plant will also contribute in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing LPG gas connections to the women, belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
The target is to distribute gas connections to 25 lakh poor women in the next two years at Rs 200 (nominal cost). The ‘Ujjwala Project’ had been launched on August 13 last year at Raipur in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
This apart, it may be recalled that in March 2015-16, the Chhattisgarh government had announced that it will prepare a Master Plan within a year to identify end-users for utilizing natural gas to be made available from a pipeline originating from Surat in Gujarat till Paradip harbour in Odhisha while passing through parts of Chhattisgarh, officials had stated. It would also prepare a plan on the utility value of gas for the local populace and State Government. A project will be prepared for the usage of natural gas as fuel for industrial units, they had stated.
The Central Government has already started laying of the natural gas pipeline from Surat in Gujarat to Paradip Harbour in Odisha. The gas pipeline will pass through Rajnandgaon, Durg, Raipur and Mahasamund districts in Chhattisgarh.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (C.S.I.D.C.) at the Mantralaya in Naya Raipur.
Notably, in January last year, Chhattisgarh was included in the Centre’s mega pipeline project for the supply of cooking gas. This was for the first time that the State has been included in the massive gas grid already operational in several states of the country.
Chief Minister Raman Singh had stated that the gas pipeline would pass from the State through Rajnandgaon to Mahasamund and onwards into neighbouring Odisha State.
He said that the pipeline would also cover the industrial city of Korba. Singh had demanded from the Centre that the project provide maximum advantage to the households and industrial units in Chhattisgarh.
The Chief Minister had directed the officials to prepare an action plan for the project at the earliest which would be presented to the Centre for its approval.