The Government has approved financial support of Rs. 150 crore each to four commercial projects under Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana, said Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The projects approved under 2G Ethanol Projects are: Bathinda (Punjab) of HPCL, Panipat (Haryana) of IOCL, Bargarh (Odisha) of BPCL; and Numaligarh (Assam) of NRL. The government has also approved Rs. 15 crore to one demo plant at Panipat (Haryana) of IOCL under the same Yojana.

In 2019, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan-Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana for providing financial support to Integrated Bioethanol Projects using lignocellulosic biomass and other renewable feedstock. 

The JI-VAN Yojana will be supported with a total financial outlay of Rs. 1,969.50 crore for the period from 2018-19 to 2023-24. Out of a scheme fund Rs. 1,800 crore has been allocated for supporting 12 commercial projects, Rs. 150 crore has been allocated for supporting 10 Demonstration Projects and remaining Rs. 9.50 crore will be provided to Centre for High Technology (CHT) as administrative charges.

Under this Yojana, 12 Commercial Scale and 10 demonstration scale Second Generation (2G) ethanol Projects will be provided a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support in two phases. In Phase-I (2018-19 to 2022-23) six commercial projects and five demonstration projects will be supported. In Phase-II (2020-21 to 2023-24) remaining six commercial projects and five demonstration projects will be supported.

The scheme focuses to incentivise the 2G Ethanol sector and support this nascent industry by creating a suitable ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and increasing Research & Development in this area.

In another development, Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) along with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad has carried out an estimation of residual biomass and its energy potential on PAN India basis on a further disaggregated at a level of 1 square kilometre through spatial information system on four major crops namely rice, wheat, sugarcane and cotton.