Chennai, Jun 23 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Tuesday inaugurated the Rs 25 crore compressed biogas (CBG) set up in Namakkal through video conference in the presence of Union Minister for Petroleium and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan.

He also inaugurated the five CBG retail outlets in Namakkal, Salem, Puduchathiram and Rasipuram.

The CBG plant belongs to IOT, a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and German company Oiltanking GmbH.

Speaking on the occasion, Palaniswami said that IOT has a biogas plant in Namakkal for an investment of Rs 34 crore and from that CBG will be made.

Palaniswami said the new plant can make 15 tonnes of CBG per day and 20 tonnes of bio manure per day.

He thanked Pradhan for the initiative and said: "I wish that more such steps will be undertaken in Tamil Nadu and my government will support such steps of the Government of India for clean energy."

According to Palaniswami, the state leads in generation of renewable energy with a total capacity of 15,876 MW out of which hydel is 2,322 MW, wind 8,523 MW, solar 4,054 MW, bio mass 266 MW and cogeneration 711 MW.