GAS REQUIREMENTS OF DELHI WILL
BE MET IN FULL: SHRI NAIK
MEGA
CNG STATION IN THE CAPITAL CITY INAUGURATED
Shri Ram Naik, Minister
of Petroleum & Natural Gas has said that the requirements
of natural gas in Delhi would be met in full as the Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) import project of Petronet LNG Ltd. (PLL) at
Dahej (Gujarat), is nearing completion. Even the industries in
and around Delhi whose fall back allocation of gas was cut to
enhance the allocation for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to vehicles
and for Pragati Power Project, would also start getting natural
gas. Promoted by four oil PSUs namely, ONGC, IOC, BPCL and GAIL,
PLL’s Dahej Plant with a capacity of 5 million tonnes LNG import
from Qatar equivalent to 20 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres
Per Day (MMSCMD) would supply natural gas to the HBJ Pipeline
from January, 2004. Shri Naik said this while inaugurating the
Rohini Mega CNG Station of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), here
today.
Referring to another
important but largely unnoticed contribution of Petroleum Ministry
to make lives of the residents of Delhi better, Shri Naik informed
that since last year 1.75 MMSCMD of natural gas is being supplied
to Pragati Power in addition to the allocation of 0.89 MMSCMD
to Indraprastha Power Plant making a total allocation of 2.54
MMSCMD. The power plants in Delhi are drawing 2.4 MMSCMD of gas
every day which is about 1.4 MMSCMD more than in previous years.
Shri Naik stressed that additional gas allocation has made available
350 Mega Watt of power to the residents of Delhi which surely
must have helped in the reduced power cuts compared to previous
years. As a special case, Petroleum Ministry has allowed Indraprastha
and Pragati Power Plants to swap gas in case one of them is unable
to use allocated quantity.
Commending the excellent
project execution by IGL, Shri Naik said that the growth of infrastructure
to supply CNG in Delhi has been phenomenal and unparalleled in
the world. As against only 22 buses as part of 4,500 vehicles
on CNG in April 2000, Shri Naik informed that the CNG-driven vehicles
have reached a total of 80,000 comprising 9,000 buses, 5,000 RTVs
apart from 51,000 autorickshaws, 5,000 taxis and over 10,000 cars.
The CNG dispensing stations have gone up from 30 to 112 as on
date. The compression capacity also grew tremendously to 14.86
lakh Kgs. per day from just 0.2 lakh Kg. per day three years back
This turnaround was facilitated by the Government through enhancing
the allocation of natural gas from 0.48 MMSCMD to 0.98 MMSCMD
and later to 2 MMSCMD. To facilitate the project implementation
the Government of India set up 2 Committees, one under the Chairmanship
of Lt. Governor of Delhi to monitor CNG infrastructure development
and another under the Chairmanship of the Petroleum Secretary
for monitoring day-to-day operational aspects.
Referring to the
visible improvements in the air quality in Delhi Shri Ram Naik
pointed out that Government on the one hand facilitated use of
CNG by autorickshaws and buses and on the other as part of a major
parallel effort, significant improvements were made in the quality
of liquid auto fuels – petrol and diesel. As per the study conducted
by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) in March 2002, around
85 per cent improvement in air quality in Delhi has come on account
of improvements made in the quality of petrol and diesel and the
introduction of Bharat Stage-II emission norms for vehicles. The
sulphur content in diesel in the NCT of Delhi was reduced from
0.25% to 0.05% in March 2001 which is comparable with the United
States and Japan and is much superior to that of Australia, China
and other countries in the Asia Pacific Region. Similarly, benzene
content in petrol has been reduced to one per cent which is comparable
with the best in the world. It may be pointed out that out of
about 25 lakh vehicles estimated to be plying on the Delhi roads,
the vehicles on CNG account for less than 4% of total vehicles.
Dr. Sahib Singh,
Minister of Labour launched the "CNG + -- a co-branded debit card
of IGL and ICICI which would be accepted at select IGL stations,
initially. Lt. Governor Shri Vijai Kapoor and the Chief Minister
of Delhi, Smt. Shiela Dikshit also spoke on the occasion.
The Rohini Mega CNG
Station is one of the 5 Mega CNG stations planned by IGL. This
has Mega Station built with an investment of more than Rs. 7 crore
marks the beginning of a faster filling of CNG vehicles. The current
capacity of this station is around 35,000 kgs. per day and will
cater to 800 vehicles per day including 300 buses and 500 small
vehicles. After expansion the station can fuel around 1,000 buses
in addition to 1,000 smaller vehicles.
