Bolangir: At a glittering ceremony, the BPCL LPG Bottling plant at Balangir was dedicated to the nation today by Prof Ganeshi Lal, Governor, Odisha in the presence of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel, Shri. Arun Kumar Sahoo, Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, Govt. Of Odisha, 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.
Initially the BPCL LPG plant was proposed to be dedicated to the nation by Shri. M. Venkiah Naidu, Hon’ble Vice President of India. He had come upto Raipur but could not make it to Balangir due to bad weather conditions today. In his audio message which was played, the Hon’ble Vice President complimented Bharat Petroleum for completing the state of the art LPG plant at Balangir within record 19 months, three months ahead of schedule. With the commissioning of the LPG Plant at Bolangir, he said, people of the region would be supplied with hassle free cylinders from now.
The foundation stone of Balangir LPG Bottling Plant was laid on 21st May 2018 by Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, the then Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas & Skill Development, Mr. Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India and Mr. K. V. Singh Deo, MLA, Patnagarh. This plant has been completed in a record 19 months period, at a total project cost of Rs. 103 Crores.
Addressing the gathering Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan said “ Nineteen months before, the foundation stone for this plant was laid and now the project has been completed in record time much before the scheduled completion date.” He further added that there were only 13.20 crore LPG consumers in the country till 2014 and now it has crossed 27 crores and in Odisha it has crossed 80 lakhs. This new plant will benefit 14 districts of the western part of the state and more than 150 trucks will be engaged in the supply of LPG cylinders to different parts of the region generating more than 500 direct and indirect employment and further said that this plant will bring economic prosperity to the region.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a Maharatna PSU under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has set up this 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, this new plant at Balangir will be the second in the State of Odisha. The 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 this 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.
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 has 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 it is dedicated to the nation by the Hon’ble Vice President. 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.
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