Pradhan lays foundation of IOC terminal in Una

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today laid the foundation stone of Rs 507 crore IndianOil terminal at Pekhubella in Una district of Himachal Pradesh today.
Pradhan said that opening of the Indian Oil Corp's terminal will be a new milestone in the history of Himachal Pradesh and also from strategic point of view.
The oil terminal at Una, nearly 200 km from the state capital, would be strategic storage point for defence to meet annual winter fuel stocking in Leh and Ladakh and enroute Pathankot to Srinagar besides for defence posts at Karu, Nima, Upshi, Kyari via Rohtang Pass.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that the entire need of petroleum products would be easily met in the state itself, which at present was being catered from Ambala and Jalandhar.
Pradhan said the terminal would be dedicated to the people of the state in 2018 and an underground pipeline would also be laid from Jalandhar to Una.
The terminal would cater to 224 retail outlet, 22 kerosene oil agencies, 125 consumer pumps meeting requirement of 580,000 KL annually in Himachal Pradesh.

The Union minister said that two bottling plants of around 90,000 MT capacity would be established in the hilly region of the state for LPG refill.

Under advance winter, stocking approximately 90,000 Kilo litre petroleum products would be supplied to Ladakh region when road links open through Rohtang and Jojila passes.
Pradhan and Virbhadra Singh also distributed LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, to provide free LPG connections to the below poverty line families.
Virbhadra Singh said that the state government provided 61 acre of land on token lease of Re 1 in 2014 to pave the way for opening of the Terminal.