Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik today said that the Government had approved a bottling plant in Chakan to take care of attendant problems on arrival of cylinders. The acquisition of land for this purpose is currently in progress, he said.

The Government plans to speed up the process of approving new petrol pumps, gas agencies and kerosene distributorships. In all, 35 locations have been identified in Pune district for new petrol pumps and 55 new gas agencies are expected to come up in the district besides four kerosene distributorships. A distribution board headed by a retired High Court judge will be scrutinising the applications. The Government has received 1,885 application for petrol pumps, 3,002 applications for gas agencies and 165 applications for kerosene distributorships.