The India Oil Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday that the country was on its way to constructing more than 10,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations along the coming decade. He was speaking at an event held by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Pradhan said: “CNG vehicles are cheaper and less polluting and for this reason, according to the road map created by the government, India will get 10,000 CNG stations in the coming 10 years from around 1,400 today. These numbers are not part of any announcement; the numbers are based on the commitments made by winning bidders under the 9th City Gas Distribution (CGD) round”.
He added: “In order to give stimulus to the sector, government-owned OMCs have decided to provide complete off-take guarantee of bio-CNG at a good price. Also, bio-CNG and biofuel can become viable alternative for the transportation sector”
India currently has around 1400 CNG stations; the investment in the new projects is estimated to be close to 10 billion USD in the next ten years.