Raghubar and Pradhan laid foundation stone for Bharat Petroleum’s LPG Plant & POL Depot

Bokaro: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and central Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday laid the foundation stone for Bharat Petroleum’s (BPCL) LPG Plant & POL Depot in Bokaro. Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said that with an investment of Rs 350 crore an oil depot and LPG bottling plant will be set up which will generate direct employment for 1000 people and thousands of others will get indirect employment.

Addressing the people after laying the foundation stone he said that development of any area can be assessed by the consumption of petrol and diesel and said that in big cities the consumption of diesel has increased by 7-8 percent while in the big cities of Jharkhand it has grown up by 15 percent which is an indicator that compared to the other areas of the country Jharkhand was making progress by the double rate. Mr Das said on the occasion of Janamashtami in all 5 divisions of the state special program will be organized in which 43 lakh women will be given second free cylinder and this will be the gift of Raksha Bandhan for the sisters of Jharkhand.

Speaking on the occasion Pradhan said “the national average growth of petroleum products in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi,Chennai & Calcutta is 7-8% while the growth in Jharkhand is15% and the petrol consumption has increased by 61% signifying that prosperity in Jharkhand is growing fast”.

He said “The two 350 crores infrastructure projects of installing POL depot and LPG plant at Bokaro by BPCL will generate employment for 1000 people. The supplies to the plants would be rail fed currently, with the expansion plans of connecting these through pipelines from NUMALIGARH Refinery with increase in consumption and capacity. Daily 250 tank lorries and 100 LPG cylinder trucks will be loaded to meet the requirement of Jharkhand which will open lot of opportunities of employment for local people” “In the coming years the oil and gas sector would invest around Rs.10,000 crores in Jharkhand”.

Catering to the needs of the people, Bharat Petroleum is building infrastructure here, scripting a new chapter in the State’s history. BPCL has identified land in Bokaro Industrial Estate for developing the proposed LPG Plant. BPCL was allotted 20 acres land by Jharkhand govt in Bokaro Industrial Estate by Project Clearance Committee of BIADA.

All pre-project approvals have been obtained and the project is likely to be completed by September 2020 at an estimated cost of Rs.100 crores. Industry growth in Domestic LPG was 16.2 % during 2018-19. On 01.08.2019, LPG penetration in the state was 74.97 %. The projected demand of LPG in Jharkhand will increase to 385 TMT by 2020-21. There are 506 distributors in the state with an additional 205 new distributorships in the pipeline. Presently, the Jharkhand market of BPCL is fed through Durgapur and Patna LPG Plants. BPCL has 101 distributors in the state with an additional 53 new distributorships in the pipeline.

Jharkhand state has been experiencing unprecedented growth in petroleum products. In the Petroleum Retail market in the last two years Petrol market has grown at 14.6% with a total Industry volume of 4.55 lakh Metric tonnes in 2018-19. Diesel has grown at rate of 8.3 % with a total Industry volume of 14.18 Lakh Metric tonnes in 2018-19. Jharkhand, contributes to about 16% of Diesel and 14% of Petrol volumes of Eastern Region, with BPCL’s market share being Petrol 27.34% and HSD: 30.3% respectively. BPCL’s new POL PROJECT would be in 77.5 acres of land at Radhanagar, land owned by the State Government. POL facilities with a Railway Siding have been planned.

The project is expected to complete in 2021-22 at an estimated cost of Rs.250 crores. Currently, there are three supply depots of BPCL in Jharkhand, namely Dhanbad and Ranchi under Ranchi Territory and Tatanagar under Jamshedpur Territory. With this major step, Bharat Petroleum is happy to partner in the growth story of Jharkhand by sowing the seeds of development and opening vast vistas for advancement in various spheres.

Also present on this occasion were Shri. P.N.Singh, Member of Parliament, Shri.Amar Kumar Bauri Minister of Revenue and Land Reforms, Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of Jharkhand, Sunil Kumar Singh Member of Parliament, Chandra Prakash Choudhary Member of Parliament Shri. Jyotirmay Mahto Member of Parliament, Shri. Biranchi Narayan Member of Legislative Assembly, bureaucrats, industry officials and other dignitaries.