Petroleum Regulatory Board Chief updates Punjab Guv on efforts to boost natural gas share

Chairperson, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), Anil Kumar Jain, met Punjab Governor and Administrator of Chandigarh Banwarilal Purohit here, the government said in a release on Sunday.

In a release, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that in the meeting,
Held on Friday, Chairperson briefed the Governor about the progress of Oil and Gas Infrastructure mainly in the Union Territory of Chandigarh and tasks being undertaken by PNGRB towards realising the Prime Minister’s vision to increase the share of Natural Gas to 15 per cent in India’s energy basket.

He also briefed the governor on the progress in the promotion of natural gas in Punjab. The inherent environmental benefits and convenience of the use of piped natural gas in cooking and CNG in transport were emphasised, the release added.

Important issues like the substitution of polluting solid and liquid fuels by Natural Gas in Industrial and Commercial units, rationalisation in land restoration charges, VAT on CNG, etc were discussed during the meeting.

Jain emphasised that with the support of UT Administration, the CGD licensee will be ready to provide “HarGhar PNG” by Mar 2025. It will be in the fitness of the city’s status of a clean and green city.

The Governor appreciated the same and assured all possible assistance for the development of natural gas infrastructure in the UT of Chandigarh.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Chairperson, PNGRB also met Nitin Kumar Yadav Adviser to Administrator.

During the meeting, issues for promotion of Natural Gas and its increased usage in Domestic, Transport, Industrial and commercial units were discussed. The Home Secretary also assured full support of UT Administration towards this shared goal. The above discussions are expected to give a major boost to this clean fuel in the energy mix of Chandigarh.

PNGRB till date has authorized 300 Geographical Areas across the country, covering 98 per cent of the population and 88 percent of the area for development of the CGD Network.
Upto 2032 PNGRB has set the target to provide 12.5 Crore domestic PNG connections, establish 17,751 CNG stations and lay 5,42,224 inch-km pipeline.

As on November 30, 2023, 1.2 crore domestic PNG connections and 6,159 CNG Stations has been established across the country.