The government on Thursday invited bids under 12th round of city gas distribution plan, which will cover seven geographical areas including most parts of the northeast, Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The network is expected to cover 92 districts with a total investment of about $4.5 billion, Anil K Jain, chairman of India’s gas transportation regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) said. The bidding process is likely to be completed by November.
“We plan to increase the potential coverage of city gas distribution to 98% of the population and 88% of geographical area,” Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said. “After this round we will go with the authorization for the island areas to cover 100% geographical areas,” the minister added.
The government said that with the 12th bidding of the city gas distribution, the target of 32,000 km pipeline will be completed with this round.
At present, the country has 5,899 CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) stations and 1.15 crore domestic PNG connections. India’s current share of gas in the energy mix stands at 5.78%.
In August, the country imported 1.7 MMT liquified natural gas compared with 1.8 MMT in July, according to the latest data available on the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell.