joint venture project with railways for bio-diesel

Thursday, March 17, 2005

M/s Indian Oil Corporation Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Indian Railways to plant Jatropha saplings on land to be provided by Indian Railway. Accordingly, Indian Railways have provided 70 hectares of land to Indian Oil Corporation Limited in Surendra Nagar district of Gujarat. Out of this land, Indian Oil Corporation have utilized an area of 48 hectares and planted 1,10,000 saplings. This pilot project is aimed at generating the base-line scientific data on growth of plants, seeding, yield of the oil seeds, oil from seeds etc.

This was stated by the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Panchayati Raj Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, in the Lok Sabha in a written reply today.

RCJ/kc / PQ (17.3.05)