At the beginning of April, Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) reported that it has installed 30 new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations in Delhi and NCR, at the retail outlets of oil marketing companies like Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL. According to various news articles in India’s press this week, IGL says that number has now more than doubled.
As the sole retailer of CNG to automobiles in the national capital, IGL announced at the beginning of this week that it has set up a record 72 CNG filling stations in first four months of 2016, to meet the rising demand for the fuel.
“While 51 out of these 72 CNG fuelling facilities are located in NCT of Delhi, 21 are located in NCR towns of Greater Noida and Ghaziabad,” it said.
Furthermore, another 18 CNG refueling outlets will be set up before the end of May, closing in on the goal of 104 stations set by the Supreme Court. 90 of the 104 have been assigned to IGL to accomplish.
IGL, a joint venture of GAIL (India) Ltd and BPCL, is the largest CNG distribution company in the country.
“The augmentation of CNG infrastructure by IGL along with an increase in the number of commercial as well as private vehicles running on CNG has resulted in increase in demand of CNG,” IGL said.
While all the taxis running in Delhi and NCR have been mandated to run on CNG by Supreme Court, there has also been a spurt in conversion of private cars to CNG mode in last few months due to initiatives aimed at curbing pollution in the region.
IGL is currently selling CNG to over 8 lakh CNG driven vehicles, while catering to the largest road based public transport fleet of buses in the world, the statement said.
“There has been a growth of around 8 per cent in average daily CNG sales since January 2016 with IGL recording peak CNG sale of 27.26 lakh kg per day. IGL has been registering average sale of over 26 lakh kg per day on working days in the last fortnight,” it said.
At the current level prices in Delhi, CNG reportedly reduces running costs by 57% for petrol driven vehicles and more than 28% for diesel vehicles.
Related article: 36 CNG Stations Dedicated in Delhi and NCR, 100+ Planned
