Bhubaneswar : The union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan today laid foundation stone of HPCL’s LPG Bottling Plant at Rayagada, Odisha. He also laid foundation stone of New School building of Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir and Aviation fuelling Station at Jeypore. He dedicated Railway Foot Over Bridges at Rayagada, Ladda and Jimidipeta to the Nation and inaugurated Post Office Passport Sewa Kendra at Nabarangpur.
Speaking on the occasion Pradhan said, ‘KBK region is being given importance in the development process, last year an LPG bottling plant was initiated in Bolangir and now the bottling plant in Rayagada will help usher economic development in the region and provide employment opportunities to the youth in the KBK region’.
LPG Bottling plant of HPCL with scheduled completion by September 2020 will be second LPG plant of HPCL in the state and will be constructed with a capex of Rs 91 crore. It will have a bottling capacity of 60 MMTPA (42 lakh cylinders per year) with a 24-Head Electronic Carousel. The plant will have mounded storage and will be equipped with advanced safety facilities.
The upcoming LPG Bottling plant in Rayagada will not only cater to the LPG markets in various districts in Odisha; Bolangir, Boudh, Gajapathi, Kalahandi, Kandhmal, Koraput, Malakangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sonepur; but also bring direct and indirect employment to the youth of this part of the State.
Under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, in the State of Odisha a total of 37.16 Lakh LPG connections have been given by the Oil Marketing Companies. Since 2014, LPG customers in the State of Odisha have grown from 20.22 lakhs to 76.65 Lakhs in 2019 leading to tremendous rise in LPG coverage from 20% to 71.5%.
HPCL’s Rayagada LPG bottling plant, once commissioned, will usher new growth and further increase the coverage of LPG in the state.