Balangir/Bhubaneswar: The Union government on Monday opened a bottling plant and a satellite centre of the National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (Nirtar) in Balangir, considered a BJP stronghold.

While Union minister of petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone of the second Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) LPG bottling plant, Union social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot inaugurated the satellite centre of the Nirtar, whose headquarter is located at Olatpur in Cuttack district.

The LPG bottling plant will come up at an investment of Rs 103 crore at Barkhani village on the outskirts of Balangir town.

Addressing a public meeting at the Koshal Kalamandal ground here on Monday, Pradhan took a jibe at the chief minister Naveen Patnaik and said: "It is not a symbolic foundation like that of an honourable leader of our state who goes on laying foundations without noticing whether works are done or not. We don't believe in symbolic foundations. Work has already started and would be completed before March 2020."

The minister said that the number of LPG consumers in the state has gone up to 62.17 lakh as on May 1 compared with 20.22 lakh as of June 1, 2014.

"The demand for bottled LPG in the state was 454.3 thousand tonne last year and is expected to go up to 610 thousand tonne by 2020," he said.

"This is only the beginning. The BPCL is coming up with another mega ethanol plant at an investment of of Rs 800 crore at Bargarh that will use agricultural waste," he said.

BPCP chairman-cum-managing director D. Rajkumar said: "With the LPG demand growing in the state, a need for setting up a new bottling plant was felt. Balangir was chosen for locating the plant considering its logistical advantage."

He said this LPG plant would be the second in the state after the Khurda LPG plant with a capacity to bottle 42 lakh cylinders a year. Once commissioned, the plant would supply LPG cylinders to the consumers in 14 districts of Odisha.

BJP's Patnagarh MLA K.V. Singhdeo said: "I must thank the minister for bringing the first industry ever to the district."

On the other hand, inaugurating the Nirtar, Union minister Gehlot said: "The institute would be no less than a medical college. Emphasis would also be given on rehabilitation of the differently-abled persons."

Former Balangir MP Sangeeta Singhdeo was present on the occasion.