Work on to upgrade Sekmai bottling plant to 1800 metric tonne capacity
Wings given to PM's assurance
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 03, 2012:
As announced by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his visit to Imphal in December last year, due process to upgrade IOC's Sekmai Gas Bottling Plant to 1800 metric tonne capacity has been initiated.
Sources informed that the work to upgrade the plant's storage capacity to 1800 metric tonne would be completed by July 2014. The existing storage capacity of the bottling plant is 600 metric tonne.
Currently, even if LPG is stocked to the full storage capacity, the bottling plant cannot supply LPG for more than seven days.
The average monthly LPG requirement in the State is 2200 MT.
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However, the bottling plant cannot supply the required quantity of LPG as adequate quantity of LPG cannot be put in stock because of its limited storage capacity.
Further, the bottling plant can hardly stock to its full storage capacity of 600 MT as Numaligarh Oil Refinery cannot supply LPG regularly.
On the average, the plant can stock only 200 to 300 MT of LPG at a time.
At times of emergency, and when the supply capacity of NRL far exceeded the demand, the bottling plant had to explore other sources of LPG.
Once the storage capacity of Sekmai Bottling Plant is upgraded to 1800 MT, NRL alone may not be able to supply the required quantity of LPG and there may arise the need to seek other sources for supplying LPG to the bottling plant.
The bottling plant would have LPG in stock for 21 days' requirement once the storage capacity is upgraded to 1800 MT.
Taking serious note of using domestic LPG cylinders in hotels, restaurants and for other commercial purposes, IOC has written to the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department to check the illegal practice.
As IOC alone cannot take up action in such cases, there is need for effective coordination between IOC and CAF&PD Department, the sources added.