The Centre is in talks with the United Nation Environment Fund for availing soft loans to fund compressed biogas projects in India. It is also looking to Japan for support to the investment needs of the gas-based economy in India.

Speaking at an event to issue Letter of Intent (LOI) for setting up compressed biogas (CBG) projects, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, said, “Banks are willing to lend capital due to good viability. We are in talks with the UN Environmental Fund for low-cost funding in a big way. Japan is keen to invest in the gas-based economy and we are in talks with it to facilitate low-cost loans for entrepreneurs.”

“Loan will never be a problem as there is an offtake guarantee and abundance of raw materials for these projects,” Pradhan added.

The LOIs were issued to entrepreneurs under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme. They were issued within 5 months of the scheme’s launch.

The SATAT scheme was launched with the agenda of utilising more than 62 million tonnes of waste generated every year in India. Cutting down import dependence, supplementing job creation in the country and reducing vehicular emissions and pollution from burning of agricultural/organic waste were the main objectives of the scheme.

The CBG plants are proposed to be set up through independent entrepreneurs. The gas produced at these plants will be transported through cascades of cylinders to the fuel station networks of oil companies for marketing as a green transport fuel alternative.

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