Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan dedicated to the nation GAIL Group’s 201 CNG stations across the country.
The Minister also inaugurated the commencement of PNG supply in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh and Mobile Refueling Units (MRUs) for refueling vehicles at Raigad, Maharashtra. The MRUs inaugurated belong to IGL and Mahanagar Gas.
India has committed to achieve 15 percent share of natural gas in the primary energy mix by 2030 for a more sustainable energy use which will help reduce environment pollution, and fulfil the country’s commitment to COP-21.
The Ministry is pushing for greater adoption and utilisation of cleaner and greener fuel including Hydrogen, CBG, Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) and LNG.
Moreover, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) is soon going to launch Hydrogen dispensing station at its refinery and Vadodara, Gujarat.
India has launched the E-100 pilot project for production and distribution of ethanol across the country and is committed to meeting its target of 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.
The Minister also encouraged CGD entities to keep working hard to reach 10,000 CNG stations and five crore PNG connections in coming seven to eight years. There is a need for conversion of diesel/petrol vehicles to CNG/LNG for ensuring lesser emissions and cleaner environment.
In that direction, MRU will help achieve supply of CNG in areas not yet connected through pipelines or at places where there is scarcity of land parcels to set up conventional CNG stations. It can store up to 1,500 kg CNG and fill 150 to 200 vehicles per day.
The aim of the government is to move towards the concept of energy retailer where all different transport fuels – hydrogen, diesel, petrol, CNG/CBG, LNG or EV batteries swapping facility will be available at a single point.