Centre aims to raise LPG consumer base to 70% in Bihar: Pradhan

Stating that LPG consumer base in Bihar at 31.5 per cent was much lower than national average of 61.9 per cent, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today stressed on installation of new bottling plants in the state in a bid to lift the percentage to around 70 per cent. 

A second carousel has been created in Muzaffarpur LPG bottling plant with this in mind, Pradhan said after inaugurating the new project here.   The Minister was here to celebrate the ‘Vikash Parv (festival)’ on completion of two years of Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

Senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Prem Kumar accompanied Pradhan at the function. The Indane bottling plant was set up in Muzaffarpur in 2012 and the present project was an attempt to expand its capacity. 

A modern 24 point electronic carousel has been set up so that Indian Oil can fill LPG cylinders of various capacity like 5 kg, 14.2 kg, 19 kg and 47.5 kg, the Minister said. Pradhan said the project as part of Prime Minister’s ‘Ujwala Yojana’ aimed at providing healthy fuel, which would be helpful for women of BPL families. The scheme to provide LPG connections to BPL families has been possible due to one crore consumer shunning their subsidies under the ‘Give it up’ campaign on LPG connection, he added. The Minister said out of the 1.75 crore new LPG connections provided to BPL families by Indian Oil in the country in 2015-16 fiscal, 86,000 connections have been in Bihar.