Maharashtra: PM Modi to lay foundation stones for City Gas Distribution projects
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stones for City Gas Distribution (CGD) projects in 65 Geographical Areas (GAs) in 129 districts under the 9th CGD Bidding Round, recently awarded by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) in New Delhi, on November 22. At a press conference held on Tuesday afternoon, Rajendra Natekar, the executive director, Bharat Petroleum (BP), said the CGD will be piped gas. He added that as of September 2018, 46 lakh customers were covered and there are roughly 1,500 CNG stations. Natekar also said that they are looking forward to the 10th round in which the government will introduced 50 Geographical Areas. He said after the ninth and tenth rounds, except for some parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha, all other parts of Maharashtra will be covered. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), the PNGRB had launched the ninth CGD bidding round in April for 86 GAs. After the evaluation, a letter of authorisation for development of CGD projects in these GAs have been issued to 23 entities. With the completion of the ninth round, natural gas will be available in 178 GAs comprising 290 districts spread over 26 states and UTs covering more than 46 per cent of the country’s population and about 35 per cent of the geographical area.
