KOCHI: India Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has said the company would augment its LPG production facilities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu to meet the increase in demand.
“The has been 11 per cent growth in demand for LPG annually, said P S Mony, general manager and Kerala Head of IOCL.
“Indian Oil is constructing an LPG import terminal of six lakh MT capacity per annum at Puthuvypeen SEZ of the Cochin Port Trust at a cost of `714.25 crore.
The project will be linked to the 498-km long Kochi-Salem LPG Pipeline that originates from here and traverses via Kochi Refinery, IOC’s Kochi bottling plant and BPCL’s upcoming bulk LPG terminal in Palakkad, before terminating in Salem. The pipeline will also feed IOC’s LPG bottling plants in Coimbatore and Erode. The entire project entails an investment of over `2,200 crore,” Mony said.
“The project, targeted to be completed by February 2018, is expected to earn the state exchequer an additional revenue of `300 crore per annum,” he said.
“With the commissioning of the import facility and pipeline, we expect the inter-state bullet truck movement to come down to 20-30 per day from the present 70-80 trucks traversing daily from Mangalore to Kerala LPG plants through the narrow and difficult terrains, thereby reducing the road traffic and accidents,” he said.
IOC has three bottling plants (Kochi, Kollam and Kozhikode) and two area offices (Kochi and Kozhikode) in Kerala to cater to the needs of its LPG customers in the state. The company has a customer base of 44 lakh in the state and sells around 40 TMT/month of LPG (28 lakh of refills to domestic customers per month).