Also, more than 3380 Community Biogas Plants (CBP), Institutional Biogas Plants
(IBP) and Night-soil based Biogas Plants (NBP) have been installed all over the
country. Biogas plant having capacity 1–10 cum is categorized as family size biogas
plant whereas above 10 cum is known as large size biogas plant (CBP/IBP/NBP).
Installed biogas plants are estimated to be saving 3.96 million tonnes of fuel-wood
besides producing about 920 thousand tonnes of enriched organic manure every year.
Apart from these economic benefits, biogas plants have provided many indirect social
benefits; such as reduction in the drudgery of rural women and children involved in the
collection of fuel materials from long distances, reduction in the incidences of lung and
eye diseases from cooking in smoky kitchens and an overall improvement in the
standard of living. During year 2000–2001 alone, 164 thousand biogas plants were
constructed, generating employment to the tune of 5 million man-days. By linking
biogas plants to the toilets, about 160 thousand families in the rural areas and 350
thousand people living in the slums in and around cities have been provided with good
sanitation facilities [2].