From police stations to fast-food outlets, Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) is expanding its drive for piped natural gas (PNG) connections in Delhi-NCR. The company aims to rapidly increase its user base, so that the pressure on cooking gas LPG can be reduced. After disruptions in energy supply due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia, the government is emphasizing on increasing the adoption of PNG as a convenient alternative to LPG. This is because PNG’s sources are more diversified and it is less dependent on the Gulf region.
2,100-2,200 connections daily
IGL Managing Director Kamal Kishore Chatiwal said that (before the West Asia crisis) we were giving 600-700 PNG connections every day, the number of which has now increased to 2,100-2,200 per day. Our ultimate goal is to take this number to 5,000 connections. Apart from providing a convenient alternative to households for cooking by laying pipelines to their kitchens, IGL is also focusing on fast-food chains which had suffered the most due to the disruptions in LPG supply. This happened because the government had given priority to the limited LPG available to households first. The company, the country’s largest city gas retailer, has already connected more than 100 outlets of two leading fast-food chains to PNG, and work is underway to connect almost the same number of outlets. Overall, 400 such outlets are in the sights of IGL.
Work on PNG started in Connaught Place also
IGL is also in the process of providing PNG connections to every police station in Delhi. The canteens/restaurants of police stations, which are currently running on LPG and PNG connections, will now be freed from the trouble of arranging for refill when the cylinder runs out. Connaught Place (CP) – a fine example of pillared Georgian-style architecture designed as a commercial and business center in New Delhi – was not reached by PNG connection due to lack of prior approval. But now, when the government has relaxed the rules to accelerate the expansion of PNG, work has started there too. An official said that the pipeline has reached the outer circle of CP. Chatiwal said that there is sufficient availability of natural gas in India, which is transported through pipelines to home kitchens, industries and commercial establishments like hotels and restaurants.
How much PNG does India produce daily?
India produces about 92 million standard cubic meters of natural gas every day. The total amount of city gas – i.e. PNG and CNG combined – consumed is less than one-third of this production. On the other hand, a large part of LPG is imported, a large part of which comes from Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. He said that we are targeting to provide 4.85 lakh new PNG connections in the next 90 days in the geographical areas (GAs) where we operate. IGL has well-established city gas distribution infrastructure in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Rewari, Gurugram, Karnal, Kaithal, Fatehpur, Ajmer, Pali, Rajsamand, Hamirpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Banda and parts of Kanpur and Meerut, comprising a pipeline network of over 28,000 km.
CNG network is also no less
IGL is catering to the fuel needs of more than 2.1 million vehicles running on CNG through a network of more than 950 CNG stations. IGL has connected more than three million households in these cities with PNG. In Delhi, IGL’s strategy is to identify areas where 100 per cent PNG access is possible and make them LPG-free. Areas like New Moti Bagh, East Kidwai Nagar and West Kidwai Nagar in Delhi are already LPG-free. Faced with the problem of not having enough LPG to serve both domestic kitchens and commercial users, the government last month made it mandatory for households to switch to PNG in areas where piped natural gas connectivity already exists.
How much LPG is consumed in India?
Under this order, consumers who have access to both PNG and LPG will have to surrender their LPG connections within 90 days. Failure to do so will stop the cylinder supply. The exemption is applicable only in cases where PNG connectivity is not technically possible, provided they have a ‘No-Objection Certificate’ (NOC). India consumes about 31.3 million tonnes of LPG annually, of which domestic production meets about 40 per cent of the requirement, and the rest is imported. About 90 percent of these imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy shipping routes, which was blocked due to the Middle East conflict.