Bhubaneswar: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday said that 500 compressed bio-gas (CBG) plants will be set up in Odisha, which will attract an investment of around Rs 20,000 crore.
“By 2023, we have aimed to set up at least 5000 CBG plants in the country with an expected investment of over Rs 1.75 lakh crore. It will provide employment opportunity in various levels and also double farmers income, besides empowering and making us self sufficient,” said Pradhan.
The Union Minister was speaking at a road show on Centre’s Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative designed to benefit both vehicle users as well as farmers and entrepreneurs here.
He said that Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas’s OMCs will open a “Centre of Excellence” to provide assistance to the entrepreneurs in CBG industry.
Maintaining that entrepreneurs are free to choose any technology and any feedstock as per their preference for producing CBG, the Union Minister suggested the officials of OMCs to conduct road shows on SATAT in all the 30 districts of Odisha and create awareness about CBG, which will help us in creating a cleaner and better environment beside creating an alternative business model to promote Gas based economy.
“The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will provide suitable environment to project developers, investors, entrepreneurs and offer them off-take guarantee of CBG at attractive prices for a period of 10 years which is further extendable,” asserted Pradhan.
Pradhan said the country imports 80 per cent of crude from foreign countries and produce 20 per cent crude for consumption in the country.
“We have to be self sufficient and create a new business model. Green and clean fuel is the way forward towards a sustainable future and also to reduce this dependency,” said the Minister.
The government expects the nation’s first compressed bio-gas (CBG) plant to become operational within the current quarter of the fiscal, Pradhan said on Monday.
“We expect the SATAT plan to be working fully inside of the next three months and the first CBG plant to be operational within this quarter itself,” Pradhan said while launching the Centre’s Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative designed to benefit both vehicle users as well as farmers and entrepreneurs.
