CGD to cover 3.50 L households with piped natural gas

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation for City Gas Distribution (CGD) projects in 63 Geographical Areas (GAs) across India, including Dakshina Kannada under ninth CGD bidding round and will launch the 10th CGD bidding round in six geographical areas in Karnataka, on November 22.

MP Nalin Kumar Kateel told reporters that CGD projects will come up in Dakshina Kannada (GAIL Gas Ltd), Udupi (Adani Gas Ltd), Chitradurga and Davangere (Unison Enviro Pvt Ltd) and Ramanagara districts (Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd). The project will herald the easy accessibility to convenient and environment-friendly natural gas.

GAIL Gas Ltd CGM Vivek Wathodkar said that the CGD network is an interconnected network of pipelines used to supply gas for domestic purposes.

The CGD project at Dakshina Kannada will supply compressed natural gas for the transport sector and piped natural gas for households, industries and commercial units. It will cover an area of 4,861 square kilometres by covering Bantwal, Belthangady, Puttur, Mangaluru and Sullia.

The total capital investment for the project is Rs 1,972 crore for the initial 25 years. The district will have around 100 CNG stations and approximately 3.50 lakh households will be provided with piped natural gas in the next eight years.

The supply of piped natural gas to industries and commercial units will also help in the reduction of pollution in the city. The project will also connect hotels and restaurants. The main source pipeline for the CGD project will be GAIL’s Kochi-Koottanad-Bengaluru-Mangaluru pipeline project.

He said that 100 households in Mangaluru city jurisdiction will be connected with piped gas and five CNG stations will be set up in one year. The pre-feasibility study for laying pipelines is being carried out. The pipeline network for Mangaluru city will be from a terminal at MCF. The GAIL Gas Ltd is in talks with the BPCL, IOCL and HPCL, to use the existing petrol stations to also dispense CNG.

Kochi-Mangaluru gas pipeline

GAIL Gas Ltd CGM Vivek Wathodkar said that the laying of gas pipeline from Kochi to Mangaluru is likely to be completed by March 2019. Initially the project was slated for completion in December. However, due to the recent floods in Kerala, the project completion was delayed.

Out of the 444-km gas pipeline, 55-km is pending at various stretches. Once the city gas distribution is implemented, then the price of piped gas will be reduced by 30% to 40%.