Dharmendra Pradhan distributes Letter of Intents to 12 successful entities for 50 Geographical Areas (GAs) under the 10th CGD Bidding Round

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan said that Indian oil and gas market, helped by progressive and conducive policy environment, have become mature and lucrative. Two international entities have bid in the 10^th round and won 10 GAs. He said that the Present Government has been able to achieve historic and unprecedented results, within the same system and resources. He said that within 5 years, the coverage of City distribution area has gone up from 20% of population to 70%. He said that there is large potential in the CGD business, as we are exploring the use of LNG in heavy commercial vehicles, use of gas in steel and other industries. The Minister said the availability of cheap, clean and convenient gas will safeguard our poor from diseases. Congratulating the PNGRB for its proactive role in bringing more areas under the CGD, and completing the process in the record time, he said that besides certain small states/ UTs, big states like Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab will now be fully covered under the CGD.

10^th CGDBidding Round

Encouraged with the enthusiastic participation by the industry in the 9^th CGD Bidding Round and recognising the need of the country to create infrastructure for distribution of natural gas in various parts of India, PNGRB initiated the 10^th CGD Bidding Round on 8.11.2018 which was formally launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 22.11.2018 at VigyanBhavan, New Delhi. 10^th round covered 50 Geographical Areas (GAs) spread over 14 states and 124 districts (112 full and 12 part), covering 24% of India’s population and 18% of its area.

The e-bidding process was initiated on 8^th November, 2018, with last date for bid submission as 5^th February, 2019. The bid evaluation for all 50 GAs has been completed in record period of 3 weeks.  After this round, 70% of India’s Population, 52% of Area, 402 districts spread over 27 states and union territories and the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, Punjab, Haryana and Union Territories of Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh would be fully covered with CGD.

Why Natural Gas

Natural gas is a superior fuel as compared with coal and other liquid fuels being an environment friendly, safer and cheaper fuel.Natural Gas is supplied through pipelines just like one gets water from the tap. There is no need to store cylinders in the kitchen and thus saves space.  As per WHO database released in May 2018, India has 14 out of 15 world’s most polluted cities in terms of PM2.5 concentration.Large number of industries also consume polluting fuels like pet coke and furnace oil which emit polluting CO₂. Some of the courts recently ordered for banning use of pet coke in states within their jurisdiction.

Natural Gas (as CNG) is cheaper by 60% as compared with petrol and 45 % w.r.t. Diesel. Similarly, Natural Gas (as PNG) is cheaper by 40 % as compared with market price LPG and price of PNG almost matches with that of subsidised LPG (based on prices in Delhi). An autorickshaw owner can save Rs. 7000-8000 on his monthly fuel bill by conversion from petrol to CNG. Thus, even on cost front as well, natural gas is preferable to petrol, diesel and LPG.