West Champaran to get nearly Rs 200 crore in bioenergy investment

West Champaran drew nearly Rs 200 crore in bioenergy investment on June 16, led by Bharat GPS Bioenergy's Rs 120.74 crore compressed biogas plant. BIADA cleared the project, and local reporting puts its employment effect at 370 jobs, while Nautek Bio Fuels Pvt. Ltd. of Kanpur is adding about Rs 80 crore.

The district is not starting from zero. Vardhan Biogas Pvt. Ltd. has been operating in the Kumarbagh industrial area for the past three months, producing about 6 tonnes a day. Its current output is being sold directly to BPCL, giving West Champaran an operating CBG reference point as the larger buildout moves from approvals into construction and commissioning.

The plant slate is anchored in local residues, not imported feedstock. Press mud from sugar mills and cattle dung from livestock farmers are the main inputs cited for the new units, and local reporting says the district's biogas projects could eventually produce about 31 tonnes a day in total. That matters for project economics because the district's supply chain is already tied to sugar and dairy activity, rather than depending on long-haul biomass collection.

The policy backdrop is equally specific. The Government of India’s SATAT scheme is designed to support compressed biogas plants and their market use through PSU oil-marketing companies, while the Press Information Bureau said in November 2023 that mandatory CBG blending would start from FY2025-26 at 1%, rise to 3% in FY2026-27 and then to 4% in FY2027-28. Bihar's Sugarcane Industries Department says nine sugar mills are operational in the state, with a combined crushing capacity of 62,950 tonnes of cane a day, giving West Champaran and nearby districts a ready industrial base for residue-linked fuel projects. The district's appeal now rests on whether those feedstock streams, offtake links and approvals translate into plants that keep running, not just announcements on paper.