The present NDA Government took over in May 2014. The Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said since then, the coverage of CGD (City Gas Distribution) have been doubled. Currently, it networks to 94 Geographical Areas spread across 130 districts. Natural Gas is the fuel for the future and the need is to increase share of Gas in India’s primary energy basket from current 6.5% to 15%. Elaborating on this, the Minister made it clear that till 2014, India had City Gas networks in 47 Geographical Areas across 73 districts. Through the 9thBidding round, City Gas networks will roll in another 86 GAs (Geographical Areas) covering 174 districts. After this round, India shall have CGD coverage in nearly 50% of the total 640 districts in the country which will cover approximately, 50% (61 Crore) of population of the country.
Speaking at the ninth CGD Bid Round, Pradhan said this is the largest ever. This round covers 20 states and 2 UTs of the country. Bid process have been rationalized. Investor-friendly parameters have been evolved to attract serious bidders, encourage competition and unreasonable parameters like amount of Bank Guarantee determining the winner have been removed.
The Minister underlined that reforms in Natural Gas sector in India are important. PNGRB is performing an important role in refining the gas usage model. It is even becoming a facilitator from a regulator. A Mini Gas Grid in North East connecting all state capitals being developed. It will be a Joint Venture of 5 companies that will cover 1,500 kms. He said, partnership with State Governments is needed. The State Governments should co-operate and support the CGD entities and the Ministry in making states pollution free.
Chairman PNGRB, D.K.Saraf in his presentation told that the current LNG Infrastructure is a bottleneck. LNG Infrastructure needs to be stepped up from 26 MMTPA now to about 50 MMTPA by 2022. Saraf mentioned that the IXth CGD round covers 174 districts (156 full and 18 part districts),20 states,2 UTs which covers fairly 29 percent of the country’s population.
