'India's 98% population will be covered by piped cooking gas'

Mar 28,2022

More than 82 per cent of India's land area and 98 per cent of the population will be covered with piped cooking gas after the latest round of expansion work, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

 Bids for the expansion work will be opened on May 12 this year. Replying to supplementary questions of members during Question Hour, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said once the award of bidding is done, it typically takes a certain number of years for the infrastructure to be laid.

 "After the 11th round of bidding, we would have over 82 per cent of our land area and 98 per cent of our population complete so that piped cooking gas can be delivered to households," he informed the house.

"The only population that will be left will be some areas in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir because they are widely dispersed. Typically, cooking gas that comes through the pipe is cheaper and more consumer friendly than that supplied through cylinders," he also said.

Puri said that during the pandemic, beneficiaries of the Ujjawala scheme were given free LPG cylinders. Today the total number of gas cylinders, which stood at 14 crore in 2014, has gone up to 30 crore and "we will cover the entire population and this is a work in progress," he also said. To another supplementary, the minister said the government is setting up 50 LNG stations in the next few years out of a total of 1,000 that are proposed to be set up.