Keeping in view the rising demand for LPG in domestic as well as in commercial and industrial segments, Indian Oil Corporation is gearing up to commission two import facilities at the Kochi port in Kerala and Paradip in Odisha by 2018, said R. Sitharthan, Executive Director of Indian Oil for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
He was talking to newspersons after launching ‘Jumbo’, a 450-kg LPG cylinder.
The product is aimed at catering to bulk consumers and those seeking to use LPG for industrial applications.
IOCL already has an import facility in Kandla port in Gujarat, while the other two players, HPCL and BPCL, have it in Mangalore and Mumbai respectively.
The officials said IOCL was well-equipped to meet the demand for LPG with its 12 bottling plants in Tamil Nadu. Work is on for commissioning a plant in Tirunelveli and this 13th bottling plant will ease pressure on the Madurai bottling plant. After Tirunelveli, IOCL plans a bottling plant at Vridhachalam.
At present, the refill requests were being honoured within the frequency of 2 to 4 days and in certain pockets, requests are honoured either on the same day or in one day.
New gas connections were being provided instantly and requests could be registered even online, he said.
IOCL was spending about ₹250 crore for renovation and revamp of its facilities, including augmentation of bulk storage facilities at its plant.
Jumbo cylinders will be a boon to bulk consumers and come with additional safety features, he said.
The cylinders are manufactured by an industrial unit in Coimbatore and filled at IOCL’s bottling plant there.
