Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan dedicated 42 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations and three city gate stations of Torrent Gas to the service of the community on 6 October 2020.
Torrent Gas has the authorisation to lay city gas distribution network in 32 districts across seven states and one Union Territory. These CNG stations are located across various states, including 14 in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Maharashtra, six in Gujarat, four in Punjab and five each in Telangana and Rajasthan. The city gate stations include one each in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab.
An investment of around USD 60 billion which is more than Rs four lakh crore is being made in the gas infrastructure which includes laying of pipelines, terminals, gas fields, etc.
The Minister called upon CGD companies to also invest in biomass-based plants to produce compressed bio-gas, using agriculture residues, forest produce, city waste, etc. Additionally, 500 such plants are already being set up, and the target is to reach 5,000 such plants.
The number of CNG stations has increased to more than double in the country, from 938 CNG stations in 2014 to around 2,300 CNG stations in 2020. Together with the existing CNG stations and the ones expected under ninth and 10th rounds, India is looking at an infrastructure of about 10,000 CNG stations in coming years.