Rayagada: Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd's (HPCL) new LPG bottling plant at Rayagada, Odisha, on February 19. He also laid the foundation stone of New School building of Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir and the aviation fuelling station of BPCL at Jeypore. He dedicated the Railway foot over bridges at Rayagada, Ladda and Jimidipeta to the Nation and inaugurated Post Office Passport Sewa Kendra at Nabarangpur.
The LPG Bottling plant of HPCL is scheduled to be completed by September 2020 and will be the second LPG plant of HPCL in the state. It will be constructed with a capex of Rs 91 crore. According to an official statement released by HPCL, the plant will have a bottling capacity of 60 TMTPA (42 lakh cylinders per year) with a 24-head electronic carousel. The state-of-the-art 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 like Balangir , Boudh, Gajapathi, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malakangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sonepur etc but also generate direct and indirect employment.
Under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a total of 37.16 lakh LPG connections have been given by the oil marketing companies in Odisha. Since 2014, LPG customers in the state have grown from 20.22 lakhs to 76.65 lakhs in 2019, leading to a tremendous rise in LPG coverage from 20 percent to 71.5 percent.
HPCL's Rayagada LPG bottling plant, once commissioned, will further increase the coverage of LPG in the state.