Pune: The Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) pipeline being laid by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) between Mumbai and Pune is set to be ready in the next three months and is expected to start supply of LPG to industrial units as well as households after successful trials. The IOC officials informed this at a programme to mark the completion of 25 years of the oil company’s Chakan project.

IOC Deputy General Manager Anjali Bhave, outgoing DGM of Chakan project Suresh Iyer, Deputy Director General of Chakan Project Rajiv Sharma, Chief Manager HG Bharwani and Senior Manager Chetan Patwari were present on the occasion. 

IOC’s Chakan project has a capacity to fill 32,000 cylinders per day and supplies gas cylinders to consumers in 27 districts.

Sharma said, “Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum get their gas supply from Uran. Hindustan Petroleum has undertaken the work to lay a 160 km pipeline between Uran and Pune. Nearly 90 per cent of this work is complete and the pipeline will be fully laid in the next three months and regular supply will start after trials.”

Officials said that Pune receives 2,100 tonnes of LPG which is carried by tanker trucks. Once the project gets operational, there will be no need to carry the gas in tankers. HPCL and Bharat Petroleum require 800 tonnes of LPG every day and Indian Oil requires 500 tonnes. 

After the commissioning of the new pipeline HPCL Talegaon, IOC Chakan and BPCL in Shikrapur will receive LPG. This will save transport cost and reduce heavy vehicle traffic on the busy Mumbai-Pune highway corridor.  

Know your LPG

• The weight of an empty gas cylinder is 15.8 kg and a filled cylinder weighs 30 kg. Thus, each cylinder contains 14.2 kg of LPG
• Liquid gas is filled at a pressure of 15 kg per square centimetre. 85 per cent of the cylinder is LPG and rest is LPG vapour. This proportion is maintained for LPG tankers as well and is considered as a standard safety measure.
• Cylinders are also available in 5 kg, 19 kg and 450 kg. Smaller cylinders are used for domestic purposes, the bigger ones are used for commercial purposes and the cylinders of higher weight are used by industry.