As much as ₹80,000 cr. investment likely for gas infrastructure in 61 areas including Nagpur, Madurai
As much as ₹80,000 crore investment is envisaged in setting up city gas infrastructure in 61 geographical areas (GAs), including Jammu, Nagpur, Pathankot and Madurai, that were put on bid in the latest licensing round, oil regulator PNGRB said.
Bids for the 65 GAs offered in the 11th city gas licensing round came in on December 15, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) said in a statement.
The 65 GAs are spread over 215 districts in 19 States and one Union territory covering 26% of India’s population and 33% of its area.
“This round attracted an overwhelming response from investors with more than 430 bids against 61 GAs,” PNGRB said. “The technical bids would be opened between December 17 to 22,” it added.
“This initiative would help in creating a robust CGD infrastructure and play a significant role in transforming to a gas-based economy. This would bring investment of more than ₹80,000 crore and generate employment.” Presently, there are 228 geographical areas authorised by PNGRB in 27 States and UTs covering approximately 53% of the geographical area and 70% of its population.
In the last city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round — the 10th CGD bidding round, 50 GAs were authorised for the development of CGD network.
In the present round, 215 districts clubbed into 65 GAs are being offered. Bids were received for 61 GAs, according to PNGRB.
During 2018 and 2019, PNGRB gave out licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to household kitchens in 136 GAs. This extended coverage of the city gas network to 406 districts and about 70% of the country’s population.
Push for natural gas use
The push for city gas expansion is part of the government’s plan for raising the share of natural gas in the country’s energy basket to 15% by 2030 from the current 6.3%.
The 65 GAs to be bid out in the 11th CGD bidding round include Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua districts in Jammu and Kashmir.
Nagpur in Maharashtra, Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan’s Bikaner and Churu districts are among the areas being offered for bidding. Nizamabad in Telangana, the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, East Medinipur in West Bengal and Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand are also on the list.
Kurnool, Guntur and Prakasam districts in Andhra Pradesh, Assam’s Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts, Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur, Kerala’s Idukki and Kottayam, Jalgaon and Amravati in Maharashtra, Koraput in Odisha, Pathankot and Tarn Taran in Punjab and Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu are among the other areas being offered for bidding.
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