Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs inaugurated 201 CNG Stations and India’s first Small Scale LNG Unit of GAIL in Delhi today. Speaking at the event, he reiterated the Government’s vision to increase the share of natural gas in the primary energy basket to 15% by 2030. “Today marks another milestone on the road to becoming a gas-based economy and a step forward towards our pursuit for energy security combined with growth in a sustainable manner," he said. “Development of National Gas Grid (NGG) and a wide spread CGD network for connecting the consumption centres with the supply points is vital for creation of a gas-based economy."
The Minister dedicated the stations to the nation through video conferencing in the presence of Union Minister of State, Petroleum and Natural Gas & Labour and Employment Shri Rameshwar Teli, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) Shri Pankaj Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL (India) Limited, Shri Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Additional Secretary, MoPNG Shri Praveen Mal Khanooja, GAIL Director (Finance) Shri R K Jain, Director (Projects) Shri Deepak Gupta, Director (Marketing) Shri Sanjay Kumar, Director (Business Development) Shri R K Singhal and senior officials of oil and gas sector companies including CGD entities.
The 201 CNG stations have been set up by 15 City Gas Distribution (CGD) entities of GAIL group in 52 Geographical Areas (Gas) across 17 states while India’s first small-scale LNG unit has been set up by GAIL at its Vijaipur LPG plant.
Out of these 15 CGD entities, 53 stations belong to GAIL Gas Limited, 50 to Indraprastha Gas, 43 to GAIL and 20 to Mahanagar Gas. Moreover, four belong to Avantika Gas, two to Bengal Gas Company, three to Central UP Gas, one to Goa Natural Gas, three to Green Gas, one to Haridwar Natural Gas, two to Purba Bharati Gas, one to Rajasthan State Gas, one to Tripura Natural Gas Company and one to Vadodara Gas.
As per the minimum work plan submitted by CGD entities, the Minister noted that the country will have around 17,500 CNG stations and around 120 million PNG (Domestic) connections by 2030.