Natural Gas Push: Centre Launches Bidding For City Gas Distribution Network In J&K And Northeast

In a major step towards gas-based economy, the Centre on Thursday launched the 12th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round, covering seven Geographic Areas in 92 districts spread across five states and two Union Territories (UTs).

Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), which authorises the CGD networks, has invited electronic bids from interested parties for 12th CGD bidding round offering 7 Geographical Areas (GA) covering five North East states, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim besides UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

The e-bidding process will wrap up by January 2024, with award finalizations expected by March of the same year.

The launch of this bidding round for Himalayan States is a step towards providing a cleaner fuel in the fragile ecosystem of these States.

After completion of 12th CGD bidding round, almost entire part of the country, except Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep will be covered under the City Gas Distribution network providing access to cleaner cooking fuel to households, other industrial and commercial facilities as well as fuel for transportation.

Only change in the auction is that earlier the district was made as geographical area (GA), but now the new pipeline, Indradhanush Gas Gird, is touching the capital of all the Northeastern states. So, the PNGRB has taken the state capital as one GA, PNGRB Member Gajendra Singh said.

Currently, there are 300 GAs authorised by PNGRB covering around 88 per cent of the country’s geographical area and 98 per cent of its population through 11 rounds of bidding.

Speaking on the occasion, Union minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said, "Successful conclusion of 11th CGD bidding round had increased potential coverage of CGD sector to about 98% population & 88% geographical area of the country. 12th round will complete the spread of the gas infrastructure to the rest of the country."

The country-wide CGD network will be a giant leap towards improving the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix. India’s current share of Gas in the Energy mix stands at 5.78 per cent, which is slated to increase to 15 per cent by 2030 thereby creating a Gas based economy.