Adani-IOC, GAIL, Gujarat Gas vie for CNG licence

Adani Gas-Indian Oil combine, GAIL Gas, Gujarat Gas and BPCL are among 18 companies that have bid for licence to retail CNG to automobiles in 20 cities like North Goa and Bhatinda.

Of the 34 cities that oil regulator PNGRB had offered in the sixth round of bidding, 56 bids from 18 companies were received for 20 cities, official sources said.

As many as 14 cities including Raebareli, Mainpuri, Etawah, Baghpat and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, Shahdol and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh and Nainital in Uttarakhand did not receive any bid.

Of the 20 cities bid for, six cities got single bids -- Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's (BPCL) bid for Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Central UP Gas Ltd for Ramabai Nagar in UP, Unison Enviro Pvt Ltd for Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Gujarat State Petronet Ltd for Bhatinda in Punjab, Perigon Infratech for Dhar in Madhya Pradesh and Mahesh Resources bid for Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

Gujarat Gas bid for the most number of cities, putting in bid for all the eight cities in Gujarat on offer, they said. These included Dahod, Patan, Banashantha, Amreli, Dahej-Vagra taluka, Ahmedabad, Anand and Panchmahal.

A consortium led by Mahesh Resources Ltd bid for 7 cities while Gujarat State Petronet Ltd bid for six cities, most of them in Gujarat. The Indian Oil-Adani Gas bid for Revari, North Goa, Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab and Rohtak in Haryana while Adani Gas on its own bid for two cities of Dahej and Ahmedabad.

BPCL in all bid for four cities.

Sources said the most contested city was North Goa which got as many as seven bids from Mahanagar Gas, Indraprastha Gas, HPCL, Maharasthra Natural Gas Ltd, Mahesh Resources, consortium of GAIL Gas and BPCL and Unison ENviro.

GAIL Gas, a unit of state-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd, bid for only one city of Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had in October last year invited bids for development of city gas distribution (CGD) network, involving retailing of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households, in 34 cities in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab and Goa.

Bids for the round, dubbed the 6th licensing round, were originally to close on December 14 but the last date of bidding was extended till January 15.

The 5th round of CGD licence bidding had received lukewarm response, with no bids being received for eight out of the 20 cities on offer, while single bids came in for two others.

Indian Oil Corp-Adani Gas combine has bid for a licence to retail CNG in five cities in that round. GAIL Gas bid for three. Licenses of that round are yet to be awarded.

Bidders have to quote the tariff they will charge for the pipeline network to be laid in the city and the compression charge for dispensing CNG (compressed natural gas) over 25 years.