New Delhi: Taking a significant step towards building a natural gas-based economy as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep S Puri recently dedicated 166 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations to the service of the community. These CNG stations have been set up by GAIL (India) Limited and nine of its group City Gas Distribution (CGD) companies in 41 Geographical Areas (GAs) across 14 States.

Puri congratulated GAIL and all the participating CGD entities for the expansion of CNG station network. He stated that these CNG stations commissioned at the cost of Rs 400 crore will further strengthen the gas-based infrastructure and availability of cleaner fuel in the country. He further stated that as compared to 2014 when there were about 900 CNG stations, currently the number of CNG stations has crossed 4500, and will be ramped up to 8000 in the next two years.

Prime Minister Modi has set an ambitious target of expanding the share of natural gas in the primary energy mix to 15 per cent to usher in a gas-based economy. The development of a gas-based economy is expected to play a key role in achieving India’s target of net zero emission by 2070. /BI/