New Delhi: The Centre has so far commissioned six BioCNG plants and 11,143 small biogas plants, including 96 in Odisha, under National Bioenergy Programme (NBP) which was notified in November 2022, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Power RK Singh, in a written reply to a question, informed Lok Sabha on Friday.
Of the six BioCNG plants commissioned, three are in Maharashtra, one each in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. A large portion of the small plants are in Maharashtra (4167), Karnataka (2488), Madhya Pradesh (2083) and Punjab (835).
The National Bioenergy Programme (NBP) will last till March 2026. It has a budgetary outlay of Rs 1,715 crore, which shall be implemented in two phases. “The first phase has a budgetary outlay of Rs 858 crore. This programme provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) for setting up of Bioenergy plants,” the Minister added.
Notably, National Bioenergy Programme aims to promote the utilization of biomass such as surplus agricultural residue, agro-based industrial residue, industrial wood-waste, forest residue, and energy plantation-based biomass for energy generation.
