The Foundation Stone of infrastructure projects in West Bengal

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.

• 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