Click on IGL app before you queue up for CNG in Delhi
Next time you want to tank up on CNG in Delhi-NCR, you need not wait in a long queue. A few taps on a new IGL app on your phone will tell you the average waiting time at stations within a radius of 5 km and beyond to help you chose the one where you can get the quickest refill. The ‘CNG Queue Management’ app is the key ingredient of a basket of digital initiatives launched by the NCR’s sole supplier of CNG and PNG services for improving consumer service and satisfaction. According to oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, these initiatives will provide seamless information and convenience to consumers as well as a big push towards creating a ‘Digital India’. The New app divides CNG consumers into three broad categories- buses, cars and autos and help disperse demand in a particular area to ease the queues. IGL has been hamstrung by lack of land in expanding its CNG network, especially in east and south, to meet over 10% rise in annual demand as more and more vehicles switch to the clean-burning fuel. Since law of physics Joules-Thomson effect does not allow CNG to be filled at the speed which petrol or diesel can be done, long queues have become the order of the day in the backdrop of limitations to network expansion. But still, IGL currently is refuelling a million vehicles daily and supplying PNG to an equal number of households, which drew a rare compliment from Pradhan. “Good to see that IGL has grown beyond the initial mandate of supplying CNG for public transport vehicles to become one of India’s biggest CGD companies. Of the 1,500 CNG stations operating in the country, more than 450 are in Delhi. IGL plans to add another 50 CNG stations in NCR,” Pradhan said.
