Inauguration of Second LPG Carousel at Indane Bottling Plant at Muzaffarpur
New Delhi 10-Jun-2016
Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Minister of State (Independent Charge)
for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, along with senior
officials on the occasion of second carousel inauguration
at Muzaffarpur Indane Bottling Plant, Bihar
Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India; inaugurated the second carousel at the Indane Bottling Plant at Muzaffarpur, Bihar in the gracious presence of Shri Ram Kripal Yadav, Hon'ble Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India; Shri Sushil Kumar Modi, Hon'ble Leader of Opposition, Bihar Legislative Council; Shri Prem Kumar, Hon'ble Leader of Opposition, Bihar Assembly; Shri Ajay Nishad, Hon'ble MP (Loksabha); Shri Mangal Pandey, Hon'ble Member of Bihar Legislative Council; Shri Suresh Sharma, Hon'ble Member of Bihar Assembly; Srimati Baby Kumari, Hon'ble Member of Bihar Assembly; Shri Ashok Kumar Singh, Hon'ble Member of Bihar Assembly and Shri Kedar Prasad Gupta, Hon'ble Member of Bihar Assembly, other distinguished guests, invitees and oil industry officials.
Indane Bottling Plant, Muzaffarpur was commissioned on 14.06.2012, having a single 24 point electronic carousel (of Kosel make) with a rated capacity of 60 TMTPA (Thousand Metric Ton per annum) - approximately 42.25 lakh cylinders every year. With the inauguration of the 2nd carousel, the capacity of the bottling plant will be doubled to 120 TMTPA i.e. 84.50 lakh cylinders every year. The plant caters to 9 districts of Bihar namely Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Saran, Siwan, Sheohar, Goplagunj, East Champaran, West Champaran and Vaishali. At present, the plant serves 43 markets with 121 distributors and approximately 7.50 lakh customers of Bihar. With the inauguration of the 2nd carousel, it will cater to 63 markets with 144 distributors of Bihar serving around 11.20 lakh customers.
The state of Bihar has a very low LPG penetration. With an aim to achieve 60-70% LPG penetration in Bihar there is need to immediately increase LPG availability by raising the capacity of existing LPG infrastructure and develop new bottling plants in Bihar so that the augmented market demand can be met. Accordingly, it has been decided to increase the existing bottling capacity of Muzaffarpur LPG bottling plant by adding a second carousel in the existing shed. The State of the art second 24 point electronic carousel (of Kosan make) has been installed in the plant which can fill all sizes of LPG cylinders being marketed by IndianOil.
Speaking at the occasion Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, stated that this augmented capacity will help to deliver LPG- the clean & green fuel, to the remote corners of the state fulfilling the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India of “Clean fuel, Better life” through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY). The scheme would impact the lives of women from BPL families in a major way by reducing the drudgery of cooking with polluting fuels and go a long way in reducing the indoor pollution and other health related problems faced by them. He added that the implementation of PAHAL – the direct transfer of subsidy on LPG to the bank accounts of the customers, has already resulted in the prevention of subsidy leakages to the unintended.
He added that the voluntary surrendering of subsidy by more than 1 crore customers under the GiveItUp campaign has helped the Government provide LPG to BPL households. Under PMUY, the Government intends to provide 5 crore LPG connections to BPL families over the next three years. He later, emphasized on the contribution of PMUY on Swachh Bharat Mission by providing clean and non polluting fuel to the BPL families as an alternative to wood and coal. He added that Bihar will be one of the major beneficiary states with implementation of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna.
Of the total 1.75 lakh connections released on industry basis in the year 2016-17 in Bihar, IndianOil has already released 86 thousand connections to BPL families.
