Calcutta, Aug. 11: Public sector oil marketing companies have lined up about Rs 2,410 crore worth investment in Bengal to meet increasing cooking gas demand under the newly launched central scheme to provide connections to households below the poverty line.

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have identified 1.06 crore households that may be beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, to be formally launched in the state by Union oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday.

The government has set a target to provide connections within three years, raising apprehensions about delays in the delivery of cylinders. Oil company officials, however, said back-end infrastructure was being augmented to avoid any disruptions.

"We have lined up investments in the bottling plant, import terminal and pipeline network to handle additional LPG capacity. OMCs are taking measures," Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra, general manager of IOC and state level co-ordinator, said.

BPCL and HPCL plan to pump in Rs 1,100 crore to put up LPG import terminals at Haldia Dock. While construction for the BPCL plant will only be complete by the end of 2018, the HPCL unit is likely to be operational in the first half of 2017.

The two companies are also setting up three new bottling plants at a cost of Rs 365 crore. Moreover, IOC intends to augment capacity of the existing plants by Rs 84 crore.

Moreover, a pipeline to carry LPG from IOC's newly built Paradip refinery to Haldia and then onwards to Kalyani and Durgapur is under construction at an investment of Rs 860 crore. This is expected to be ready by the end of next year, Mohapatra said.

According to Amales Datta, deputy general manager in charge of LPG at IOC, 40-45 lakh new connections, including 30 lakh under the Ujjwala Yojana, will be given out this fiscal alone. Last year, industry provided 17 lakh connections through the regular route.

"We have identified 6.84 lakh households for the scheme in Bengal. Of that 4.06 lakh households are ready to take delivery," Datta said. Bengal's LPG penetration stood at 52 per cent compared with the national average of 60 per cent, making it one of the initial states for scheme roll out.

He claimed the waiting period for gas refill is 2-3 days and it would remain so despite near 50 per cent jump in active connections in Bengal.

The PMUY scheme entails connection to every woman of BPL household listed in Socio Economic Cast Census data of 2011. But they must have an Aadhaar and a bank account. They would not have to pay Rs 1600 deposit like a regular customer. There will also be EMI option to take the first refill.

Oil industry officials do not expect much demand from such customers though. Compared to city customers who on an average consume 14 cylinders a year and nine cylinders in rural areas, a BPL customer may not take more than 4 cylinders a year, they added.