IndianOil begins LPG plant revamp exercise
Kolkata   19-Mar-2010
IndianOil has undertaken a major revamping exercise of its LPG bottling plants in the region. North East India is likely to become LPG surplus by April this year. IndianOil will also initiate talks with the Assam government for supplying the solar lantern. In the state budget 2010-11, the Assam government has earmarked Rs 12 crore for providing solar lamps to one-lakh students. IndianOil has started the sale of this lantern in Assam from Wednesday onwards. The North East requires some 24,000 metric tones (MT) of LPG per month while the region produces 18,000 MT per month. The region has to import around 6 MT of LPG. Assam has witnessed a shortage of LPG cylinders In January this year. General Manager, IndianOil, North East integrated state office, Mr. A. Pandian, told ET: "At presently we are producing around 235,000 MT of LPG annually and after the revamping project is completed, the capacity will increase up to 375,000 MT annually. There are around 10 bottling plants of the company spread across the North East, five of which are in Assam and the rest are in Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. He added: "We are making investments in several plants. According to the requirement of the plant, investment to the maximum of Rs 10 crore is made in these plants. We are also investing around Rs 100' crore in different retail outlets. For producing Euro in fuel and face-lifting, the company is investing around Rs 500 Crore to Rs 600 Crore in three different refineries of the region. IndianOil is also looking to increase the rural penetration of LPG. Mr. Pandian said: "Very soon LPG connections for villages with 2000 families will be rolled out under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen LPG Vitrak Yojana. We will do it in a phased manner. IndianOil has a network of 1200 retail outlets and Kissan Seva Kendras in the region.