<p>The use of synthetic fertilizers has increased drastically over the years due to industrialization and urbanization. These chemicals pose a serious threat to the overall ecosystem. To solve these problems, exploitation of potential alternatives is the need of the hour. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria positively influence the growth and development of crops in many ways. The aim of the present study was to isolate, screen and identify the rhizobacteria with the highest phosphate solubilizing rate with multiple plant growth promoting traits which can be used as a potential biofertilizer. The soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of five different crops from a farm in Chennai. A total of 164 cultures were isolated and screened for phosphate solubilization out of which 28 were found to be positive. These 28 potential isolates were subjected to cultural, morphological and biochemical characterization, and plant growth promoting abilities assay. Among the 28 phosphate solubilizers, isolate PSLR2 was found to possess the highest phosphate solubilization index of 6 with phosphate solubilization of 272.8&#xa0;µg/mL with multiple plant growth promoting abilities including zinc solubilization, nitrogen fixation, production of chitinase, protease etc., and was identified as <i>Lysinibacillus boronitolerans</i>. The results of this study demonstrates that the isolate PSLR2 has diverse abilities and hence the potential to be used as a plant growth promoting bacterial inoculant.</p>