Oil Minister Pradhan launches BS-IV grade transportaion fuel

- OMCs incur `90,000-cr cost on phase-wise upgrade of fuel quality

Bhubaneswar: Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, formally launched BS-IV grade transportation fuel across the country from here. Reiterating the Centre’s commitment to clean fuel, Dharmendra Pradhan said: “Today, we begin a new era of clean transportation fuels that will benefit the 1.25 billion citizens of our country by substantially reducing pollution levels everywhere. From today, India will have Only BS-IV fuel.”

The Minister complimented the oil marketing companies-- IndianOil, HPC and BPC-- for setting up refining infrastructure and logistics in a record time for the launch of BS-IV grade fuels across the country as per schedule. The OMCs are incurring an expenditure of Rs 90,000 crore on phase-wise upgrade of fuel quality in the country.

To mark the launch of BS-IV fuels across the country from here on Saturday, the Minister symbolically commenced sale of the eco-friendly and low-emission fuels from 12 different locations across the country through live video links. The 12 locations are Varanasi, Vijayawada, Durgapur, Gorakhpur, Imphal, Bhopal, Ranchi, Madurai, Nagpur, Patna, Guwahati and Shillong. The event coincided with Utkal Divas (formation day of the State) being celebrated in Odisha.

At the same event, the Minister handed over a deposit-free domestic LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana(PMUY) scheme to Swalia Bibi of Shikharchan Basti in Bhubaneswar to mark the completion of release of 2 crore LPG connections to women beneficiaries from below poverty line (BPL) households across the country.