Bhubaneswar: The vice president of India, M Venkaiah Naidu, is going to inaugurate an LPG bottling plant of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. (BPCL) at Barkani village in Odisha’s Balangir district on December 27, 2019.

BPCL’s State Head, LPG – Odisha and Jharkhand, Sanjay Sharma said at a presser, here on Sunday, that the bottling plant has been established at an expenditure of Rs 103 crore in 19 months, authorities said, adding that the plant has capacity of manufacturing 42 lakh cylinders annually. around 42 lakh cylinders will be manufactured annually at the plant.

Sharma said the bottling plant will benefit residents of as many as 14 districts- Balangir, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Sonepur Koraput, Malkangiri, Nowrangpur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Raygada and Nuapada- of western Odisha.

BPCL has 21.59 lakh customers in Odisha who consume approximately 78 lakh cylinders in a year. This consumption is expected to increase from 78 lakh cylinders to 105 lakh cylinders by the end of 2020.

With the growth of LPG demand, particularly in Western and South-western Odisha, need for putting up a new bottling plant was felt and the historical town of Balangir was chosen for locating the plant considering the logistics advantage of the location.

Governor Ganeshi Lal, chief minister Naveen Patnaik and union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan will also attend the inauguration ceremony.

The vice president is also scheduled to attend the platinum jubilee function of Rajendra College in Balangir as the chief guest during his one day visit to the State on December 27.