Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) announced winners for the 9th City Gas Distribution (CGD) bid. This included 86 geographical areas (GA) for retailing of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to the household. A total of 4,346 CNG stations for 84 geographical areas (GA) will be set up in a span of 8 years. Also, 2.1 cr piped natural gas will be provided by September 30, 2026.
CDG Results
Adani gas won rights to 13 cities on its own and 10 in joint venture with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). IOC won 7 cities on its own including Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu and Guna in Madhya Pradesh.
Bharat Gas Resources Limited won 11 cities including Amethi and Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. Torrent Gas Private Limited won 10 bids. This included Chennai, Alwar in Rajasthan, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and Karaikal in Puducherry.
GAIL Gas won 5 cities and Indraprastha Gas Limited won 2 cities. Other winners are Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), Gujarat Gas, Green Gas, Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd, RM Energy, Haryana City Gas, Essel Gas, Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd, Tripura Natural Gas and Assam Gas.
Bid norm changes
Amendments were made to the PNGRB Regulations 2008 in April this year. 70% weight-age was given to the total number of CNG stations and PNG connections that could be installed in the first 8 years of operation. Only 10% weight-age was given for transportation tariff for CNG and PNG within the city. Apart from that, marketing exclusivity was increased to 8 years from 5.
PM’s 2020 target
The bidding was intended to boost PM Narendra Modi’s target of giving piped cooking gas connection for 1 cr households by 2020. According to the PNGRB, this is likely to attract 70,000 cr investments. And the government plans to raise the share of natural gas in the primary energy basket from 6.5% to 15% in the upcoming years.