Over 5,000 biogas plants to be set up in 5 years at Rs 1.75 trn: Pradhan

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said as many as 5,000 plants for extracting biogas from agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste are envisaged to be set up in the country in next five years at a massive Rs 1.75 trillion investment.

Pradhan announced that state-owned fuel marketing companies will purchase all the biogas from these plants at Rs 46 per kg in a bid to cut reliance on imports for meeting oil needs.

India is more than 81 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and the move to use biogas extracted from waste/bio-mass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste and sewage treatment plant waste is aimed at cutting that.

"We are today inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from producers to offer compressed biogas (CBG) that oil companies can use as a fuel for transportation," he said at the launch event here.