Work to supply piped natural gas gets going in City

Supply of cooking gas to households in the City through pipelines is finally becoming a reality. Gail Gas Ltd has begun fitting pipe connections to individual households at BEL quarters in Jalahalli to supply piped natural gas (PNG) as part of the City Gas Distribution (CGD) project in Bengaluru.

Gail Gas, which is implementing the project in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts, has so far covered 280 households at Jalahalli.

 “Gas pipelines to households have been already laid and we are currently fitting smart meters to all the houses. We are planning to begin supplying cooking gas through pipelines to the residents of Jalahalli in about two weeks,” GAIL Gas general manager (projects) Partha Jana said.

Residents of Jalahalli will be the first to get PNG under the project. The Gail Gas has identified 1,280 households in Jalahalli, including BEL quarters, for supplying PNG. Recently, the company conducted a workshop for the residents on safety measures to be followed while using PNG. It has simultaneously working on laying pipelines in HSR Layout.

The project will be extended across Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru rural districts, depending on the permission to be granted by civic agencies to lay the pipeline. However, the company has not yet commenced booking for subscription from people. The BBMP and the BDA had so far given permission to lay about 32 km of pipeline in their jurisdiction. But the Gail Gas, which is a subsidiary of the Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail), has bagged the contract to provide CGD network and supply PNG for domestic purpose and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for commercial and industrial use. Currently, use of PNG is optional, and it is not binding on LPG (domestic) consumers to switch to PNG. The Gail Gas has fixed Rs 5,800 for a PNG connection. This includes Rs 5,000 security deposit, including charges for installing smart meters, Rs 300 as registration charge and Rs 500 as first-month consumption advance.

Whereas, oil marketing companies are charging Rs 1,600 per LPG (subsidised domestic) connection, including the regulator. Both Gail Gas and oil companies refund the deposit amount.