Eight companies including Reliance Gas Ltd, GAIL Gas and the joint venture of Indian Oil and Adani Energy have bid for the rights to retail CNG in seven cities.
Reliance Gas, a unit of Reliance Industries, bid for three cities of Rajahmundry, Shahdol and Yanam, officials in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board said.
GAIL Gas Ltd, a subsidy of state-run GAIL India Ltd, did not bid in the cities Reliance had opted for, but did so very aggressively in Allahabad, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad and Jhansi.
While GAIL avoided being pitted against Reliance, it had no such hesitation in putting a bid against Indraprastha Gas Ltd in Ghaziabad.
IGL is a joint venture of GAIL and Bharat Petroleum supplying CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in Delhi.
The joint venture of Indian Oil and Adani Energy bid for Allahabad, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad and Rajahmundry while Hindustan Petroleum and Gujarat government-owned GSPC Gas Ltd bid for Chandigarh and Ghaziabad.
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Little-known Siti Energy also is in the fray for Ghaziabad.
The official said Jhansi (GAIL Gas), Shahdol and Yanam (Reliance) received single bids and so the PNGRB has extended the bid submission by one month.
In Allahabad, the IOC-Adani joint venture is in direct fight with GAIL while Chandigarh has a four-cornered contest among IOC-Adani, HPCL, GAIL Gas and GSPC Gas.
Ghaziabad witnesses the fiercest competition, with IOC-Adani, HPCL, GAIL Gas, IGL, Siti Energy and GSPC Gas in the fray. Rajahmundry has IOC-Adani, Reliance Gas and Bhagyanagar Gas Ltd contesting, he added.