J&K Among States to Get 41,000 Cr Investment

New Delhi: Six north eastern states and two Union Territories of Jammu and 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 on Monday.

Speaking at a function to award licences to the winners of 12th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round, he said with the award of licences for 8 geographical areas covering 103 districts in six north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram and two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the city gas network now covers the entire country except the islands.

"Anticipated investment for 12th CGD bidding round is Rs 41,000 crore generating considerable employment opportunities," he said.

While the consortium of Bharat Petroleum and Oil India Ltd won the city gas licence for Arunachal Pradesh,

Haryana City Gas bagged the same for Meghalaya. Stateowned GAIL (India) Ltdpromoted Tripura Natural Gas got licence for Manipur and Mizoram. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) in collaboration with OIL got the licence for Sikkim. BPCL won the licence for J&K and Leh/Ladakh.

Puri said the government is promoting use of natural gas as a fuel for transport, and cooking gas as well as in industries to transform India into a gasbased economy.

"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," he said adding "India is committed to continuously improve the policy and regulatory environment to support the development and make cleaner and sustainable fuel accessible and available to public at large." Promotion of natural gas is part of the Prime Minister's vision to increase its share in India's energy basket from around 6 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030.

"This will