IOC to invest Rs 286 cr to expand LPG bottling output in north-east India

Guwahati: Public sector undertaking Indian Oil Corporation will invest over Rs 286 crore to enhance its LPG bottling capacity, including setting up of two greenfield plants, in North East by 2020.

The company is establishing two new facilities at Agartala in Tripura and Barapani in Meghalaya at a total investment of Rs 217.46 crore.

"With increase is demand, we are ramping up our LPG bottling capacity across north-east. While we are adding more output to the existing plants, new units are being set up to cover more areas," Indian Oil Corporation Chief General Manager (IndianOil-AOD) Uttiya Bhattacharyya told PTI here.

The company currently has 10 bottling plants across north east and these are functioning at over 100 per cent utilisation rate, he added. Expansion is going on at six units, including two greenfield locations.

"In this entire exercise, we will invest more than Rs 286 crore by August 2020," Bhattacharyya said.

The IOC is pumping in Rs 143.46 crore to set up the plant at Agartala that will have an installed bottling capacity of 60,000 metric tonne per annum (MTPA). Bhattacharyya said the facility is under construction and is scheduled to be completed by June 2019.

"The Barapani unit is at an initial stage now. This will have a capacity of 30,000 MTPA and will cost us Rs 74 crore. We are at present waiting for the environmental clearance and the units is scheduled to be ready by August 2020," he added.

Apart from the above two units, the company is adding capacities to its existing bottling facilities at Silchar, Bongaigaon and North Guwahati. Bhattacharyya informed that the expanded Silchar unit has been commissioned just recently in this month after increasing the capacity to 1,20,000 MTPA from 60,000 MTPA at a cost of Rs 23.45 crore.

"In North Guwahati, we are spending Rs 45.13 crore for raising the output to 1,80,000 MTPA from 1,20,000 MTPA. We will also have two mounted storage vessels of 600 MT each. Both these works will be ready by September 2018," he added.

Bhattacharyya further informed that the expansion work at the Bongaigaon unit has been completed and the capacity is now doubled to 60,000 MTPA.