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CNG, PNG coverage set to expand to 70% population
The government is offering 50 more ‘geographical areas’ for setting up city gas service in 124 districts in 14 states with the aim of expanding the CNG and PNG service coverage to 70 per cent of the country’s population.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will next week launch the 10th city gas licensing round offering these fields and mark the beginning of work on city gas projects in at least 62 cities that were offered in the ninth round that concluded earlier this year.
The 50 areas to be offered in upcoming round will cover 24 per cent of the country’s population and 18 per cent of the area. In the ninth round, 86 areas spread over 174 districts in 22 states and Union Territories were offered to cover 26 per cent of the population and 24 per cent of area.
Sectoral regulator DK Sarraf said several of the 86 areas from the ninth bid round have been excluded for the PM’s function due to various reasons. Five have been excluded due to litigation and 16 others due to the poll code as they are in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana where assembly elections are on
Bids for the 10th round will close on February 5 and areas will be awarded by the end of February. First CNG station or PNG service in the areas awarded in the previous round will take at least 1-2 years to become operational.
The government is targeting raising share of natural gas in the primary energy basket to 15 per cent from 6.5 per cent in the next few years and the bid rounds are aimed at fulfilling that objective.
The areas offered in the 9th and 10th round are close to natural gas pipelines and companies have been given eight years for the completing rollout of city gas infrastructure in their areas.
“Future bid rounds will be slower and smaller as new areas can be offered only when gas pipeline is laid to connect them to the gas grid,” Sarraf said. “Next round will happen after some gap. In the two rounds (9th and 10th), we have covered 50 per cent of India’s population and 42 per cent of the area,” he said.
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