Bokaro, Aug 11 (IANS): Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stones of Bharat Petroleum's (BPCL) two projects, here on Sunday.

BPCL will set up a LPG bottling plant and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) terminal here.

Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said, the growth of petroleum products' consumption in Jharkhand was 15 per cent against 7-8 per cent in big cities, like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. The petrol consumption in Jharkhand had increased 61 per cent, signifying growing prosperity, he said.

The Rs 350 crore infrastructure projects are expected to create employment for 1,000 people. "In the coming years, the oil and gas sector will invest around Rs 10,000 crore in Jharkhand," Pradhan said.

The state government has allotted 20 acres of land to BPCL in Bokaro Industrial Estate for the project. The POL project, which will come up at Radhanagar, is expected to complete in 2021-22.

Till August 1, LPG penetration in Jharkhand was 74.97 per cent and the demand is projected to increase to 385 TMT by 2020-21. The number of LPG distributors is likely to increase by 205 from the present 506.