IOC to invest Rs.1,500 cr to ramp up storage in Northeast

Public sector undertaking Indian Oil Corporation plans to invest around Rs.1,500 crore in the Northeast to strengthen its various divisions, including storage and retail, over the next three-four years.

Indian Oil-AOD, the company's Northeast division, is scouting for land in states such as Assam, Tripura and Mizoram to increase storage capacities of petroleum products.

"Northeast is very important for us and we are focussing more to provide optimum services to the people of the region.

One of the most important issues is availability of products, keeping in mind the geographical disadvantages of the region," Indian Oil Corporation Executive Director (IndianOil-AOD) Dipankar Ray told PTI here.

Common people of the region, especially in hill states, suffer a lot whenever there is any natural calamity or political or social disturbances, he added.

"To mitigate this problem, we have decided to increase our storage capacities of petroleum products and LPG in every state of the region in a big way.

"For this, we will invest around Rs.1,500 crore over the next three-four years in the seven states," Ray said.

Out of this amount, about Rs.1,250 crore will be put in to ramp up the storages of petrol, diesel and kerosene, while Rs.150 crore and Rs.50 crore will go for enhancing LPG storage capacities and increasing the number of retail outlets, respectively, he added.

Ray said the company is looking for land in Assam, Tripura and Mizoram to increase its petroleum products' capacities.

"We have a depot at Missamari in Assam with a capacity of 19,000 kilo litre (kl). We plan to increase it to 25,000 kl at an investment of Rs.160 crore.

"The depot is surrounded by the Army cantonment and we are discussing with the Army for more land to enhance storage," he added.

In Tripura, the company plans to invest Rs.175 crore to have a new depot at Agartala with a capacity of 45,000 kl by closing its existing 9,500 kl depot at Dharmanagar.

"The Tripura government has identified a land parcel and we have seen it. We are at an advanced stage of negotiation for the land with the government," Ray said.

He also said that the company is in discussions with the Mizoram government over land to set up a new storage depot at Sairang with a capacity of 12,122 kl, entailing an investment of Rs.150 crore.

On the timeframe to complete these expansions, Ray said: "Usually it takes 24-30 months of construction time, excluding the period in inviting tenders. So we hope, these three projects will be completed in the next three-four years."