Indian Oil is planning to invest Rs 1,300 cr in West Bengal in two years

Kolkata: Oil public sector undertaking (PSU) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has plans to invest over Rs 1,300 crore in West Bengal in the next two years. The investments will spread over a variety of projects, including BS VI compliance of IOC's Haldia refinery, the unveiling of diesel emission additives, new retail outlets, solar power modules, ethanol tankers and LPG bottling plant.

'First BS-VI fuel supply to Bengal already made'

Executive director of Indian Oil Pritish Bharat said that the oil marketing company is planning to start selling only BS VI-compliant fuel (both petrol and diesel) from all their outlets from April 1, 2020. The BS-VI grade fuel has a sulphur content of 10 PPM compared to 50PPM in BS-IV petrol. "First BS-VI fuel supply has already been made to West Bengal from IOC's Mathura terminal," Bharat said.

IOC plans to set up a plant in Budge Budge

The OMC is planning to set up a plant in Budge Budge at an investment of Rs 150 crore to manufacture a diesel emission additive. The additive will be used for BS-IV diesel engines to make them compliant with BS-VI diesel.

Expansions on the anvil

IOC is also going to augment the biofuel tanking and ethanol tankage capacity across its terminals in West Bengal by 5,000 kilo litres. The current tankage capacity of Ethanol is only 400 kilolitres, while for biodiesel it is 9,000 KL. The oil PSU also has plans to invest over Rs 500 crore in its Haldia refinery for switching production line from BS IV to BS VI.

100 new retail outlets across Bengal

Indian Oil will add 100 additional retail outlets to its current tally of 1,200 across the state. "All the new outlets will be company-owned-dealer-operated (CODO) and we are investing Rs 100 crore," Bharat added.

A new LPG bottling plant in Kharagpur

The company is also planning to set up a new bottling plant with an investment of Rs 163 crore in Kharagpur. "The LPG penetration in Bengal has gone up from 40.5 percent to 94 percent in the last five years. The current national average is 96 percent. Earlier, 86.6 lakh households in the state had LPG connection now. The number is 2.9 crore now," Bharat added.

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