The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas H S Puri on Friday said the country, at present, has around 4,500 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations, which will be ramped up to 8,000 in the next two years.

Puri also dedicated 166 CNG stations to service the community. These stations have been set up by GAIL (India) and nine of its group City Gas Distribution (CGD) companies in 41 Geographical Areas (GAs) across 14 States.

Puri said these CNG stations have been commissioned at the cost of ₹400 crore and they will strengthen the gas-based infrastructure and availability of cleaner fuel in the country, MoPNG said in a statement.

As compared to 2014, when India had about 900 CNG stations, currently the number of stations have crossed 4,500, and will be ramped up to 8,000 in the next two years, it added.

The number of PNG connections have crossed 95 lakh compared to about 24 lakh in 2014. Puri emphasised that rollout of CNG on such a scale is expected to incentivise the market for CNG vehicles and will have exponential impact in terms of manufacturing, skill development and employment generation. These stations will provide direct employment to about 1,000 persons.

After the completion of ongoing CGD development in GAs awarded under the 11th and 11th A CGD bidding round of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, 98 per cent of India’s population and 88 per cent of its geographical area will have access to natural gas.

The minister also visited an exhibition on promotion of CNG and LNG-based clean mobility technology vehicles organised by SIAM. During the interaction, he stressed on the need for enhanced coverage of CNG and LNG vehicles and requested automotive companies to ensure availability of CNG/ LNG vehicles on a pan-India basis.

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