The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas H S Puri on Thursday launched the 12th City Gas Distribution (CGD) bidding round through which the government wants to create natural gas infrastructure in north eastern states and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
In his address, Puri said the government’s focus is to increase share of gas in India’s energy basket. At present, 98 per cent of India’s population and 88 per cent area has already been covered for CGD development in the last 11 rounds.
“Government of India is focused to promoteusage of natural gas as a fuelor feedstock across the country to increase the share of natural gas in primary energy mix from current level to 15 per cent in coming years. An approximate investment of $67 billion is expected in natural gas infrastructure in next 5-6 years,” he added.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) Chairman Anil Jain emphasised that the current focus of the regulator is to create a vibrant and sustainable gas infrastructure in the entire country. The launch of this bidding round for these Himalayan States is a step towards providing a cleaner fuel in the fragile ecosystem of these states.
“The $4.5 billion investment expected is in gas infrastructure such as pipelines, pumping stations, etc. The investment which may come by industries and others following this (auction) is not included in this number, Jain added.