OMCs to add 5 lakh tonnes capacity in West Bengal

State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) will add 5 lakh tonnes annual capacity of bottling plants in West Bengal in the next three years catering to the demand for LPG cylinders under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a top official said on Thursday.

"We (all three OMCs) have 10 bottling plants in the state with a combined capaciy of 9 lakh tonnes. We will add 5 lakh tonnes capacity of the bottling plants in the next 2-3 years to cater to the demand for LPG cylinders under the PMUY," said Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra. Indian Oil Corporation's General Manager cum State Level Coordinator (Marketing Division West Bengal State Office).

The investment will be around Rs 540 crore, he said.

In West Bengal, there are around 2.3 crore households and 1.06 crore are target beneficiaries which will be covered by 2019.

"The process of de-duplication of eligible applicants has already been started. Around 6.84 lakh households have been enrolled under the scheme in the state. Of which, de-duplication of 4.6 lakh cases has already been completed for providing connections," he said.

The identification of eligible BPL families will be made on Social-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.

The centre will launch the scheme on August 14.

The Centre has prioritised the implementation of the scheme to the states where LPG penetration is less compared to national average.

West Bengal has a 52 per cent LPG penetration as opposed to the national average of over 60 per cent.

Under this scheme, 5 crore LPG connections will be provided to eligible BPL households with a support of Rs 1,600 per connection in the next three years. The OMCs will provide EMI facility for meeting the cost of stove and the first refill.

The central government has already allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the Ujjwala Yojana implementation for the current fiscal. The government will distribute pan India LPG connections to about 1.5 crore BPL families within this fiscal.

A total budgetary allocation of Rs 8,000 crore has been made for implementation of the scheme over the next three years.

--IANS

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