More than 31 lakh households connected with piped natural gas: Sitharaman

Efforts are on expanding the City Gas Distribution networks (CGD)

Over 31 lakh households are connected with piped natural gas across the country and efforts are on to expand the city gas distribution networks (CGD), Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

"Government has prioritised domestic gas allocation for CGD entities and has issued guidelines wherein the entire requirement of CGD entities for PNG (domestic) segment is being met through domestic gas," Sitharaman, replying on behalf of Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

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The Minister said a total of 31,62,186 households are connected with piped natural gas, besides 29,993 industrial and commercial units are also currently given piped natural gas across the country.

Sitharaman said under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act 2006, Government has established Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board which is the statutory authority to grant licenses for the development of city gas distribution network.

"CGD network includes CNG/PNG network also. Requests are received from various state governments from time to time. Based on these requests, PNGRB has been considering the entire district as a geographical area for the development of CGD network so that PNG/CNG services can be made available in the cities and other parts of the district," she said.