Bhubaneswar: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has sought Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’ intervention in removing hurdles in the setting up the Rs 150 crore LPG bottling plant in Khurda.
Pradhan urged the chief minister to direct the concerned authorities to allot the land to IOCL for the plant.
Odisha government is not supporting in land allocation for the Khurda LPG bottling plant, Pradhan wrote to Patnaik.
The letter dated December 28, 2018 said an estimated investment of Rs 150 crore is getting delayed for the past 19 months. The project will benefit all the LPG consumers in the state as the setting up of the bottling plant will reduce transportation charge from bottling plant to the distributor.
Stating that LPG is used by the common people, the Union minister said the government’s inaction and attitude of non-cooperation is ultimately affecting the common people, it said.
The letter, which was shared with the media Saturday, said the Shree Jagannath Temple Trust had offered IOCL a 32 acre piece of land on outright sale basis in March 2016 for constructing a new LPG bottling plant at Somnathpur village in Khurdha district.
IOCL deposited the entire amount of Rs 28.8 crore March 30, 2017. The demarcation of the land was carried out in December 2017 by the SJTT and IOCL was informed of it.
However, the land has not yet been handed over to IOCL despite requests to the principal secretary to the law department and the chief secretary for approving the proposal for entering into the sale deed at the earliest, it said. IOCL had obtained the necessary environment clearance November 5, 2018. The project had also been cleared under the Single Window Clearance of Odisha government December 6, 2017.
IOCL is now prepared to start the project execution work immediately after receipt of necessary permission for sale deed, Pradhan said in the letter.
The minister said there are four LPG bottling plants of OMCs in Odisha and they have already invested Rs 100 crore for augmenting the existing bottling capacity per annum from 1.5 crore cylinders in 2014 to 3 crore cylinders in 2018.
Three new LPG bottling plants are underway at Bolangir, Rayagada and Khurda at a total cost of Rs 403 crore and one LPG import terminal at Paradip at a cost of Rs 690 crore, he said.
PNN