By IANS
Raipur : Public sector petroleum majors – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum (HP) – are slated to have large-scale bio-fuel plantations and production units in Chhattisgarh, a senior official said Thursday.
“IOC and HP have moved separate proposals for setting up joint ventures with the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) for massive plantations of jatropha – a source of bio-fuel – across the state on fallow land,” S.K. Shukla, CREDA director, told IANS.
Both companies have also shown keen interest in installing a chain of bio-fuel production units in the state, he added.
“The government has agreed in principle to both the proposals and a date for separate memorandums of understanding (MoU) with oil majors for the joint ventures will be announced soon,” Shukla stated.
CREDA will provide land to the venture partners for jatropha plantations and for installing production units while the financial investment will be made by the partner companies.
The profit between CREDA and the partner-company will be shared on a 26:74 basis respectively.
Chhattisgarh government claims that bio-fuel rich plants like jatropha and karanj have the potential to help India get over its annual requirement of about 124 million metric tonnes of petroleum products, of which around 72 percent is met through imports.
CREDA claims that farmers and various government departments have sown 400 million jatropha saplings in the state during the past three years on government and private lands.