NEW DELHI: Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), a joint venture of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), has drawn up an ambitious plan to spread the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) network to the National Capital Region (NCR) townships by opening new outlets in Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Sonipat and Panipat.

According to IGL Managing Director, Om Narayan, IGL has undertaken the challenge to expand existing CNG infrastructure in line with consumer needs by increasing outlets, enhancing CNG station capacity and opening new CNG stations in the NCR and in the Capital. In addition to this, IGL would be commencing construction work in Greater Noida. The permission for laying of pipeline network and setting up the outlet in Greater Noida has already been received. Five sites have been allotted to IGL for this purpose.

Mr. Narayan further said action has also been initiated to expand to neighbouring towns of Ghaziabad, Sonipat, and Panipat for which no objection has been received from the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana Governments. On the issue of expansion of the Piped Natural Gas segment, Mr. Narayan said IGL targets to provide natural gas to a total of 70,000 consumers in Delhi by the end of current financial year.

The Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Murli Deora said whatever gas is required by the Delhi Government for setting up new power plants and also to spread the CNG network would be made available as per demand. He directed the IGL officials to hold a meeting every three months on issues pertaining to Delhi.

"IGL has drawn up an ambitious expansion plan keeping in mind the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi. I am confident that it will enable the Games to be held in a pollution-free and better environment,'' he remarked at the inauguration of the IGL Bhavan at R.K. Puram in South Delhi on Wednesday.

On the hand it was informed that GAIL had identified 28 cities for implementation of projects for supplying CNG to automobiles and PNG to households and commercial establishments. "We have identified 28 cities for implementation of city gas distribution projects,'' GAIL Director (Commercial) U.D. Choubey said.

The cities identified include 13 polluted cities identified by the Supreme Court and the remaining on business viability basis. The Supreme Court had identified Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Pune, Faridabad, Patna, Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai as the most polluted.

While, GAIL has identified Allahabad, Bareilly, Jhansi, Mathura, NOIDA, Navi Mumbai, Gwalior, Indore, Ujjain, Rajamundry, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Kota and Vadodara.

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