Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on 6 April, 2023 inaugurated the state's second ethanol plant at Motipur in Muzaffarpur district, with the capacity to produce 110 klpd of ethanol from maize.

The plant has been developed with an expenditure of Rs 152 crore, and is expected to provide employment for at least 700 people.

Altogether 17 ethanol-producing units have been approved in Bihar, including one in Purnia with a capacity of 65,000 litres per day.  India's first ethanol plant at Purnia was inaugurated in May 2022.

The CM informed that work is progressing on 15 more ethanol plants at different places in the state, including Bhojpur, Gopalganj, and Bhagalpur.

An ethanol plant at Ara with a capacity of five lakh litres per day, is slated to be the second largest ethanol plant in Asia, once operationalised.