By Sandeep Pattnaik

Bhubaneswar, 21/08/17: Minister of State (I/c) Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India, Dharmendra Pradhan distributed 121 Letter of Intents (LoI) for new LPG distributorships here on Monday.

Gracing the occasion, Pradhan said, “as on August 2017, LPG coverage in Odisha has increased from 20.0 % in 2014 to 50 % which is about 150% increase. Odisha is having 4 LPG bottling plants having total capacity of 340 thousand metric tonnes (TMT) with a distributor network of 582. One LPG Import Terminal at Paradip at a cost of Rs 700 Crore is being set-up to strengthen the LPG supply chain in Odisha.”

Besides, LPG product Pipeline from Paradeep to Balasore and new LPG bottling plants at Khordha, Bolangir and Rayagada at an investment of Rs 400 crores are also planned, the minister added.

“Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas [MoPNG] has invested Rs 2500 crore in LPG related infrastructure in Odisha. To keep pace with this increased demands, the distribution network is also being augmented from existing network of 582 LPG distributors to nearly 1000 distributors with addition of 400 new LPG distributorships through a transparent process of selection”, he informed.

While congratulating the new LoI holders, Pradhan urged to ensure imparting knowledge of safe practices to new consumers who are mostly from rural areas/BPL families.

Among the 121 LoIs to new distributors from 30 districts of Odisha, include 57 Women, 25 OBC, 20 SC/ST and 2 physically handicapped category distributors.