By Bizodisha Bureua, Bhubaneswar, May 21, 2018: Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union minister of social justice and empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Monday laid foundation stone of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited’s (BPCL) second LPG bottling plant in Odisha at Koshala Kalamandala Ground in Balangir district.

The plant costing Rs 103 crore will be located at Barkhani in the district. Expected to be commissioned by March 2020, the new plant spread over 23 acres will have a bottling capacity of 42 lakh cylinders per year.

The company already has a LPG bottling plant in Khordha district.

The Balangir plant will supply LPG cylinders to consumers in Balangir, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Sonepur, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Rayagada and Nuapada districts.

BPCL has 15.37 lakh customers in the state, who use around 78 lakh cylinders per year. The consumption is expected to increase to 105 lakh cylinders by 2020.

Oil marketing companies have LPG bottling plants at Balasore, Jharsuguda, Khurda and Jatni. The current bottling capacity of these four plants is 2.80 crore cylinders per annum.

In addition to the proposed Balangir plant, oil marketing companies plan to set up new plants at Bhubaneswar and Rayagada. Once all are functional, the seven plants in Odisha will have a total bottling capacity of 4.06 crore cylinders per annum.