The Gujarat government's dream of turning the state into a gas capital have gone awry. State officials are blaming "indifference" on the part of the top Central regulator, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), to giving the required permissions for laying gas pipelines across the state.
"Proposals for laying gas transmission as well as distribution pipelines in towns and industrial areas in most parts of Gujarat have been held up for the last three years, as PNGRB, which is authorized to give a nod, has just refused to act", a senior official said.
Meant both for domestic and industrial use, 3,000 km long transmission pipelines were laid down in about a decade's time, benefiting about eight lakh consumers. Major urban areas like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Hazira, Dahej, Valsad and Vapi were the net gainers. Of this, 1,874 km network belongs to the state-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), while the rest, about 1,400 km, the Centre's Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL).
Information culled by Gujarat government officials suggest that plans had been worked out for laying down another 3,000 km of transmission pipelines in five years to benefit 10 lakh consumers. This was over and above the plans to set up 500 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations immediately needed to meet domestic vehicle demands, as the current 284 CNG stations are simply insufficient. In fact, estimates suggest, gas demand has already reached 100 million metric standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD), while the supply is just 57 MMSCMD.
With the power sector seeing a major expansion, and auto majors like Tatas, Ford, Peugeot and Maruti coming in, the demand is likely to go up further. "While the state government has been encouraging new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals at Mundra, Okha and Pipavav, and the existing ones are under expansion, failure of the PNGRB to act is frustrating the entire effort", a senior official said, adding, "Representations at the highest level have failed to materialize. One doubts if things will pick up once a new PNGRB chairman takes over in October."
In fact, the bids already finalized are not being made public by the top Central regulator. Made for Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kutch East and Kutch West, this is adversely telling on both industry and domestic users, mainly of urban areas. The official said, "This apart, plans were worked out to lay pipelines in most of Saurashtra, North Gujarat and Central Gujarat which are today devoid of natural gas."
"Proposals for laying gas transmission as well as distribution pipelines in towns and industrial areas in most parts of Gujarat have been held up for the last three years, as PNGRB, which is authorized to give a nod, has just refused to act", a senior official said.
Meant both for domestic and industrial use, 3,000 km long transmission pipelines were laid down in about a decade's time, benefiting about eight lakh consumers. Major urban areas like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Hazira, Dahej, Valsad and Vapi were the net gainers. Of this, 1,874 km network belongs to the state-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), while the rest, about 1,400 km, the Centre's Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL).
Information culled by Gujarat government officials suggest that plans had been worked out for laying down another 3,000 km of transmission pipelines in five years to benefit 10 lakh consumers. This was over and above the plans to set up 500 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations immediately needed to meet domestic vehicle demands, as the current 284 CNG stations are simply insufficient. In fact, estimates suggest, gas demand has already reached 100 million metric standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD), while the supply is just 57 MMSCMD.
With the power sector seeing a major expansion, and auto majors like Tatas, Ford, Peugeot and Maruti coming in, the demand is likely to go up further. "While the state government has been encouraging new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals at Mundra, Okha and Pipavav, and the existing ones are under expansion, failure of the PNGRB to act is frustrating the entire effort", a senior official said, adding, "Representations at the highest level have failed to materialize. One doubts if things will pick up once a new PNGRB chairman takes over in October."
In fact, the bids already finalized are not being made public by the top Central regulator. Made for Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kutch East and Kutch West, this is adversely telling on both industry and domestic users, mainly of urban areas. The official said, "This apart, plans were worked out to lay pipelines in most of Saurashtra, North Gujarat and Central Gujarat which are today devoid of natural gas."
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