Six North-eastern states, along with Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh will see Rs 41,000 crore investment in rollout of city gas network to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to houses over the next few years. Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said this at a function to award licences to the winners of 12th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round on 04 March, 2024.

With the award of licences for eight geographical areas covering 103 districts, in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram, and Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the city gas network now covers the entire country except the islands.

While the consortium of Bharat Petroleum and Oil India won the city gas licence for Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana City Gas secured the same for Meghalaya. GAIL (India)-promoted Tripura Natural Gas got the licence for Manipur and Mizoram. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) in collaboration with OIL received the licence for Sikkim, while BPCL bagged the licence for J&K and Leh/Ladakh.

The initiatives to develop a gas-based ecosystem of gas infrastructure (over the past few years) have opened up new avenues for investment of about USD 67 billion, the Minister said. The Prime Minister's vision to increase its share in India's energy basket from around six percent to 15 per cent by 2030, will take consumption from the present level of around 185 million standard cubic meters per day to over 500 mmscmd by the year 2030.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has brought out amendments in its natural gas pipeline tariff regulation and implemented a unified tariff last year, witha  view to provide access to natural gas in the far-flung areas at competitive and affordable rates.