50 per cent of households in Odisha under LPG coverage:

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Dharemendra Pradhan today said LPG coverage in Odisha has increased from 20 per cent in 2014 to 50 per cent of the households in the state which is about 150 per cent increase.
Pradhan said this while distributing Letter of Intents (LoI) of 121 new LPG distributorships here. This will usher in an era of socio-economic empowerment and employment generation for youth of the state, he said.
Pradhan pointed out that as of now, Odisha is having four LPG bottling plants with total capacity of 340 thousand metric tonnes (TMT) with a distributor network of 582.

He informed that to strengthen the LPG supply chain in Odisha, a LPG Import Terminal at Paradip at a cost of Rs 700 crore is being set-up. Also, LPG product pipeline from Paradeep to Balasore and new LPG bottling plants at Khurda, Bolangir and Rayagada at an investment of Rs 400 crores are also planned.
The Ministry of PNG has invested Rs 2,500 crore in LPG related infrastructure in Odisha, Pradhan said adding that in order to keep pace with this increased demands, the distribution network is also being augmented from existing network of 582 LPG distributors to nearly 1000 distributors with addition of 400 new LPG distributorships through a transparent process of selection.

While congratulating the new LoI holders, Pradhan urged them to ensure imparting knowledge of safe practices to new consumers who are mostly from rural areas/BPL families. He urged selected distributors to ensure improved services to consumers.
Pradhan awarded 121 LoIs to new distributors from 30 districts of Odisha during the function. These include 57 Women, 25 OBC, 20 SC/ST and 2 physically handicapped category distributors.
There is a provision for financial assistance to SC/ST candidates by providing bank loan, margin money, working capital loan with easy instalment schedule under the corpus fund scheme, he said.