 "GAIL plans to set up CNG outlets on New Delhi-Mumbai highway")
State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd plans to set up a CNG Green Corridor between New Delhi and Mumbai in 12-18 months to facilitate vehicle refuelling, company Chairman B C Tripathi said today.
GAIL, through its subsidiaries, plans to set up CNG outlets along the highway between New Delhi and Mumbai and then to Bangalore to provide refuelling for vehicles, he said.
Currently, the CNG (compressed natural gas) network is mostly spread within the municipal limits of cities such as Delhi, Agra, Indore and Mumbai. For travel between states, CNG is not viable because of lack of refuelling infrastructure.
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"The idea of a CNG Green Corridor is to have CNG outlets at regular intervals along the highways," he told reporters here.
Tripathi said adequate refuelling options are currently available only in patches, such as the Delhi-Agra highway.
"The Delhi-Mumbai corridor should be ready in one to one and half years. From Mumbai to Bangalore, it may take four-five years."
A similar corridor is being set up between Delhi and Lucknow.
India currently has a gas pipeline network extending over 13,000 km, with vast stretches still not touched by the environment friendly fuel.
The Green Corridor aims to establish the Natural Gas Highway in the country. Refuelling infrastructure across the Green Highway will encourage long-haul transporters to adopt natural gas vehicles (NGVs) due to increased availability of gas stations.
Operational gas pipelines from Bangalore to Ludhiana provide an opportunity to transform inland transportation to operate on NGVs and expand the reach of CNG beyond cities, Tripathi said.
The availability of CNG refuelling stations will ensure the uptake of CNG by NGVs travelling on highways from Bangalore to Ludhiana, spanning Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.