How to get a PESO licence for an acetylene plant in India the Form C, E and F sequence explained

An acetylene plant in India cannot fill a single cylinder until the Chief Controller of Explosives (CCE) at PESO Nagpur has approved the site, the generator and the filling premises under the Gas Cylinders Rules 2016. The route is three forms in sequence — Form C for prior approval of the plans, Form E to fill dissolved acetylene, Form F to store it — plus a generator approval without which the storage licence cannot be issued. This page sets out the sequence as PESO's own procedural guidelines describe it, with the distances, documents, fees and validity periods that apply, so that a plant buyer knows what the regulator will ask for before the first drawing is made.

Acetylene is a flammable gas, and under PESO's published procedure every Form E, Form F and Form G application for toxic and flammable gases is decided by the Chief Controller of Explosives in Nagpur rather than by a circle office. The CCE also grants manufacturing approvals for cylinders, valves and regulators, approves acetylene generators, and approves conversions. Circle offices approve testing stations and handle filling permissions for individual cylinders, and sub-circle offices inspect and report. The practical consequence is that an acetylene filler's entire regulatory relationship is centralised in one office, and a plant builder such as KIGL deals with the same office for generator approval.

Nothing is built until the layout is approved. The Form C file, as PESO's guidelines list it, contains the application itself, a layout plan to scale, details of the surrounding area within 100 m (Rule 47(1)(a)(iii) requires the plan to show everything within 100 m of the edge of the facilities), the Schedule V fee, proof of legal possession of the land, a description of the process and its maintenance schedule, a fire-fighting adequacy check, and a piping and instrumentation flow sheet.

The layout is judged against the safety distances in Form E Part B of the Rules, which are the distances an Indian acetylene plant is actually licensed against:

Two of these have no counterpart in EIGA Doc 123 Table 6, which is the European reference: the 30 m to an oxygen plant and the 90 m to an air-compressor intake are Indian cross-contamination rules, and they are stricter than the European code on that axis. EIGA, for its part, asks for 200 m to public buildings, which the Indian table does not state. A site that satisfies PESO is therefore not automatically a site that satisfies a multinational customer's audit. The full comparison is on the layout and safety distances page, and the capacity side of the decision on sizing an acetylene plant.

The acetylene generator is approved by the CCE separately from the premises. PESO's guidelines state expressly that a Form F licence for acetylene requires a copy of the CCE approval for the acetylene generator, so the generator's paperwork gates the storage licence. For a plant buyer this is the single most useful thing to know before ordering: a generator model that already holds a current CCE approval shortens the whole programme, and one that does not cannot be licensed into service until it does.

The technical basis for a generator in India is IS 8471:2003 (including Amendment 1 of February 2024, which updated the permitted steel grades to IS 2002, IS 2062 and IS 2041). The standard classifies generators as low pressure (maximum working pressure 14.71 kPa g) or medium pressure (138 kPa g), requires a test pressure of 200 % of design pressure, and in clause 12.8 requires the flashback arrestor on the generator to conform to IS 11006. What IS 8471 asks of a generator is set out on the IS 8471 explained page. Manufacturing approvals for pressure components run through a Third Party Inspection Agency (TPIA): design drawings endorsed by the TPIA, a TPIA-certified test certificate, a prototype inspection and a joint inspection report. The Indian first-time fee shown in PESO's table is Rs 10,000; a foreign manufacturer pays Rs 6,50,000 and must show ten years of track record, product liability insurance and ten years of supply records.

Form F covers storage of filled cylinders in sheds, attached to or separate from the filling premises. For acetylene the shed must have at least 3 m clear distance all round with industrial fencing not less than 2 m high (Form F clause 5(b)), flammable-gas cylinders separated from oxidising-gas cylinders by at least 1 m or a fire-resisting partition (clause 4), and at least two portable foam or chemical extinguishers of 10 kg each (clause 16). The Rules also require flameproof, earthed electrical fittings in premises storing flammable gas and ban smoking and naked flames near flammable-gas cylinders. The storage rules for users are covered on handling acetylene cylinders.

Rule 51(2) fixes the term: Forms E, F and G remain in force until 30 September of the year up to which they are granted or renewed, subject to a maximum of ten years. The renewal date is a calendar point, not the anniversary of grant. Rule 55(7) charges twice the ordinary fee for renewal within three months of expiry, and one year's fee for each further three months or part; Rule 55(8) refuses renewal altogether after one year. A renewal file needs a covering letter, Form C, the fee, land possession documents and an undertaking that no court cases are pending. Suspension under Rule 57 cannot exceed three months, and an appeal against a CCE order must be filed within sixty days (Rule 59).

Rule 44(b)(iv) exempts possession of up to 25 dissolved acetylene cylinders at a time for own use — not for sale or trading. A fabrication shop drawing acetylene from a few cylinders therefore needs no PESO licence. Above 25 cylinders, or for any trading, a Form F licence is required, and Rule 48(1) requires a trader to obtain a District Authority no-objection certificate first. The parallel thresholds are 25 cylinders or 200 kg for other flammable non-toxic gases, 200 cylinders for non-flammable non-toxic gases and 5 for toxic gases.

PESO's procedural guidelines reproduce Schedule V. The headline figures are small: Rs 5,000 for Form E per gas type; Rs 2,000 for Form F storage of up to 200 dissolved acetylene cylinders plus Rs 2,000 per additional 200; Rs 1,000 for plan approval, amendment, duplicate copy or appeal; Rs 10,000 for a first Indian manufacturing approval and Rs 2,000 for its annual renewal. PESO's own document warns that some table values are garbled and must be confirmed against the Gazette. The real cost of compliance is the land to meet the 15/30/90 m distances, the generator approval, the pollution and fire clearances and the time.