The Foundation Stone of infrastructure projects in West Bengal

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    In News-Recently, the Prime Minister dedicated to the nation four infrastructure projects worth 4700 crore rupees at Haldia in West Bengal.

    About:

    • The foundation stone of the second Catalytic-Isodewaxing Unit was laid down at the Haldia refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited.
    • Other three projects are Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL’s) LPG Import Terminal, GAIL’s Dobhi-Durgapur Natural Gas Pipeline section and NHAI’s four-lane road overbridge cum flyover on NH 41.at Ranichak

    Need:

    • Scarcity of gas was leading to the closure of industry in the region.Therefore, a decision was taken to connect eastern India with the eastern and western ports.
      • Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Pipeline is a part of that project.

    Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Pipeline:

    • The gas pipeline project aims to provide piped cooking gas to residents of Varanasi and later to millions of people in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.
    • One nation-one gas grid is an important step for meeting the energy requirement.
      • For this, the focus is on reducing the cost of natural gas and expanding the gas-pipeline network.

    Overall Benefits:

    • The four projects will improve both ease of living and ease of doing business in the region.
      • These projects will also help Haldia to grow into a major hub of export-import.
    •  Construction work will provide employment to locals.
    •  This will also provide clean piped LPG to the kitchens and enable clean CNG vehicles.
    • Sindri and Durgapur Fertilizer factories will get continuous gas supply.

    More Steps in the same direction:

    1)Hydrogen Energy Mission

    • It is proposed to launch in 2021-22 for generating hydrogen from green power sources.
      • Hydrogen can act as an energy storage option, which would be essential to meet intermittencies (of renewable energy) in the future.
      • It ensures regional and national energy security, access and availability.
    • It is essential to decarbonise heavy industries like steel and cement.
    • Green hydrogen energy is vital for India to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions.

    2)Ujjawala Scheme-

    • Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
    • It was launched in 2016 from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.
    • The scheme is aimed at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in rural India with the clean and more efficient LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)
    •  90 lakh free LPG connections were given to women in West Bengal which include more than 36 lakh women belonging to  SC/ST category.
    • This year’s Budget has proposed 1 crore more free gas connection under Ujjwala Scheme.

    Source :PIB

     

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