New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation three key projects related to the petroleum sector in Bihar through video conference on Sunday, his office said.
The projects include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline augmentation project and two LPG bottling plants, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement on Friday.
Giving details, it said the 193-km long Durgapur-Banka pipeline section, built by IndianOil, is part of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline augmentation project for which the foundation stone was laid by the prime minister in February 2019.
The section is the extension of the existing 679-km long Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline to the new LPG bottling plant at Banka in Bihar.
The pipeline passes through West Bengal (60 km), Jharkhand (98 km) and Bihar (35 km), the statement said.
Laying of the pipeline under the Durgapur-Banka section requires crossing several natural and manmade hurdles, it noted, adding that a total of 154 crossings were bridged, including 13 rivers, five national highways, and three railway crossings.
The pipeline was laid under riverbeds through state-of-the-art Horizontal Directional Drilling technique without disturbing the water flow, the PMO said.
The LPG bottling plant at Banka, it said, will increase the ‘aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) of Bihar by meeting the rising demand for LPG in the state.
This bottling plant has been built at an investment of around Rs 131.75 crore to serve the districts of Bhagalpur, Banka, Jamui, Araria, Kishanganj and Katihar in Bihar, along with the districts of Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Sahibganj and Pakur in Jharkhand, it said.
The bottling plant at Harsidhi in East Champaran has been constructed at a cost of Rs 136.4 crores.
Modi had laid the foundation stone of the project in April 2018, the PMO said.
The bottling plant will cater to the LPG requirement of East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Siwan, Gopalganj and Sitamarhi districts in Bihar, it added.
Sources had earlier said that the prime minister will launch and inaugurate development works worth over Rs 16,000 crore in the next 10 days in poll-bound Bihar.
