Ghaziabad suburb has big potential as a gas consumer
Adani and IOC see huge business potential in Ghaziabad where it emerged the best retail gas licence bidder on September 22.
Ghaziabad is fast becoming another suburb of Delhi and shares a border with the capital city, just like Noida, one of the earliest neighbouring towns to be swallowed by Delhi’s ever-growing urban sprawl. Ghaziabad, which is technically part of Uttar Pradesh state, is just 19-km east of Delhi and property developers are already constructing large modern residential and commercial complexes, attractively priced to entice residents and businesses from Delhi.
Adani and IOC claim people have already started shifting to Ghaziabad from the capital. “Businesses and commercial establishments are also shifting,†we hear, “as they can buy more space in Ghaziabad for less than what they would pay in Delhi.
†In addition to existing factories that dot Ghaziabad, all these newcomers will require gas, says Adani-IOC, adding that within seven years Ghaziabad will have gas demand of 1.5m cm/d. “Half of this will be from industry, 40% will be CNG, and 10% from households and commercial complexes.
†Adani-IOC plans to set up about a dozen CNG stations in the next three years, and is considering three possible options for the transport of gas to Ghaziabad. They could tap into GAIL’s rudimentary network which supplies gas to a couple of local factories, or tap into GAIL’s upcoming Dadri to Bawana pipeline which when ready in about a year will be just 12-km away, or tap into Indian Oil’s Dadri to Panipat gas pipeline, expected to be commissioned by November or December and which will be just about 15-km away.
But it is most likely that they will choose the Indian Oil pipeline, as it is the most secure. “As the Dadri to Panipat pipeline will carry gas from the HBJ pipeline we will have an assured source of supply and will not be at GAIL’s mercy, as we would be if we used their pipeline all the way to Ghaziabad.
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