BALANGIR: Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday laid the foundation stone of a Rs 103 crore LPG bottling plant of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) here.The bottling plant to be set up at Barkhani village, about 12 km from here, is expected to be commissioned by March 2020. The new plant will be spread over 23 acres and has a bottling capacity of 42 lakh cylinders per year, official sources said.
Addressing the gathering at Koshal Kala Mandap here, Pradhan said “Establishment of the second bottling plant of BPCL will be a step towards fulfilling Prime Minister’s vision of Purvodaya: A prosperous East for a new India. It will not only take ahead Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana but will also trigger development in the 14 districts which the bottling plant will cater to.”Informing that LPG consumer base in Odisha has grown 207.5 per cent, Pradhan said the bottling plant will be the second in the State after Khurda.
The Union Minister did not waste time in praising the BJP Government at the Centre and said, BPCL is coming up with another mega ethanol plant of Rs 800 crore at Bargarh which will use agricultural waste. He hoped that these two projects would not only generate direct and indirect employment for youth of the State, but also contain migration to a great extent. He also announced to take up development of Balangir personally.
While Rs 500 crore is being spent on National Highway passing through Balangir district is underway, there is also a proposal to develop a National Highway connecting Balangir via Patnagarh, Harishankar, Paikmal and Nuapada which would boost tourism in the district. Accusing the State Government for failing to implement welfare schemes of the Centre in Odisha, Pradhan charged the State for all the failures.
Later, Pradhan along with Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot dedicated the satellite centre of Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research. Aids, appliances and kits were also distributed to the beneficiaries by the Ministers on the occasion.
Addressing mediapersons, Gehlot said the aim of establishing the Centre in Balangir is to provide rehabilitation services to person with disabilities from rural, tribal and other interior parts of rural Odisha. It will provide prosthetics and orthotics services, physiotherapy services, occupational therapy services, rehabilitation psychotherapeutic services and speech and hearing services, he added.
Among others, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of BPCL D Rajkumar and Patnagarh MLA K V Singhdeo also spoke on the occasion.
Project plan
The new plant will have a bottling capacity of 42 lakh cylinders per year
Balangir plant will supply cylinders to consumers in 14 districts in the State
LPG consumers in Odisha have grown 207.5per cent
BPCL coming up with another mega ethanol plant of Rs 800 cr at Bargarh
BPCL has another bottling plant at Khurda