Hardeep Singh Puri 166 CNG pumps 3500 stations opened in 14 states of the country will get relief from long queues in two years.

Jul 16,2022

To promote a natural gas-based economy in India, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has opened 166 CNG pump stations to serve the community. This will now eliminate long queues for CNG filling. 166 CNG pumps have been installed in 41 Geographical Areas (GAs) in 14 states by GAIL (India) Limited and its Group City Gas Distribution (CGD) companies. The Union Minister said that the establishment of CNG stations will promote the manufacture and marketing of CNG vehicles.

He said that this is an important step to expand the availability of environment-friendly CNG to the transport sector, households and industries in India. This will stimulate the CNG vehicle market and have a significant impact on manufacturing, skill development and employment. The Union Minister also shared some statistics about CNG stations and said that in 2014 there were only 900 CNG stations in the country. He said that at present the number of CNG pumps has increased to 4500 and the Center is planning to repair 3500 CNG stations in the next two years.

He said that in 2014 there were only 900 CNG stations in the country and currently there are 4500 CNG stations which are planned to be increased to 8000 in the next 2 years. Apart from this, the number of PNG connections has also crossed 9.5 million which was around 2.4 million in 2014. He said that these CNG stations started at a cost of Rs 400 crore will further strengthen gas-based infrastructure and availability of clean fuel in the country. He said that these CNG stations will provide direct employment to around 1000 people.

Hardeep Singh Puri during the discussion emphasized the need to reduce vehicle emissions by adopting cleaner fuels and technology in the automotive sector. The transport sector in the country is an important step towards increasing the availability of natural gas, an environmentally friendly and convenient fuel for domestic and industrial use. Natural gas is also safer and more economical than most conventional fuels.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious target of increasing the share of natural gas in the primary energy mix to 15 percent to enter a gas-based economy. The development of a gas-based economy is expected to play an important role in achieving India’s net-zero goal by 2070.