CNG stations to triple in NCR: Petroleum minister

The government plans to triple the current CNG stations in the national capital region (NCR) for boosting use of the clean fuel, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here on Monday.

"We have a scheme to triple the number of CNG stations in the national capital region as part of a scheme for a Green Energy Corridor being drawn up for implementation in the next two years," Pradhan told reporters here on the sidelines of a petroleum ministry organised seminar on "Bio Fuel Programme in India-The Way Forward".

"The green corridors being planned would go along in all fourdirections from Delhi, to Jaipur, to Chandigarh, to Haridwar and to Agra. There will be many more CNG stations en route," he said.

"Other such corridors being envisaged are the 'triveni' of Allahabad, Kanpur and Lucknow and Mumbai-Pune in the west. A Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh southern corridor is very much a possibility. Andhra Pradesh is showing great interest, while Bengaluru has already started laying CNG pipelines," he added.

Describing "clean energy as gas-based energy", Pradhan said bio-fuels would contribute to the composition of the green energy corridors.

Lamenting that the government's 2012-mandated ethanol blending programme had not managed even 3 percent blending of petrol and with bio-diesel yet to take off, he said that it is to encourage ethanol that the government had earlier decided to link its price to sugarcane by fixing a procurement rate of Rs.48.50-49.50 per litre.

The Indian Sugar Mills Association had lauded the move, saying that five percent ethanol blending will save foreign exchange to the tune of $800 million.

Addressing the workshop, former head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) R.A.Mashelkar called for a concerted development of next generation bio-fuels for India's energy security.

"With the public good nature of both energy security and environment in this case, market forces alone cannot drive innovation," said Mashelkar, who is currently chancellor of AcSIR, Pune and on the board of Reliance Industries.