GAIL highlights Kanpur and Pune CGD expansion plan
GAIL is moving ahead briskly to expand its city gas distribution business in the two mid-size towns of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Pune in Maharashtra.
In Kanpur, GAIL, BPCL and the Uttar Pradesh state government are working together through their joint venture company Central UP Gas Ltd, which operates four CNG stations selling 25,000 cm/d. Work is underway to supply cooking gas to 1000 households by December this year.
After this the JV will target local industrial consumers like the government’s arms factory in Kanpur. Delhi has allocated 100,000 cm/d subsidised (APM) gas to supply the CGD network in Kanpur.
“If we get industrial consumers,†says a JV source, “the demand will be between 300,000 and 400,000 cm/d within the next seven or eight years.†From Kanpur, the JV wants to expand its operations to Bareilly, Allahabad and Jhansi.
Gas will reach this region through a GAIL trunk line, which is an extension of the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline. “We plan to have one CNG station in Bareilly by the end of this year,†we hear.
Bareilly has an allocation of 50,000 cm/d APM gas. Half of this is expected for CNG while the rest will go to industrial consumers.
“There’s not much scope to supply cooking gas to households in Bareilly,†adds a source. “The population is dispersed and people generally don’t live in apartments.
†Allahabad and Jhansi should be covered by 2008-09. For Pune, GAIL is working through its joint venture with BPCL and the Maharashtra government: Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd. This JV awaits the arrival of GAIL’s Dabhol to Panvel to Pune pipeline - expected to reach Pune by the end of this year - before beginning gas supplies.
Pune has been allocated 400,000 cm/d APM gas and the joint venture plans to have six CNG stations operational by March next year. “Our plans are to sell 100,000 cm/d CNG by 2008-09 and go up to 300,000 cm/d in about eight years,†we are told.
Households are expected to consume about 50,000 cm/d piped gas within eight years while industries are likely to use about 150,000 cm/d.