Gail-BPCL to supply piped gas in Pune

Gail Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) have formed a joint venture company, the Maharashtra Natural Gas (MNGL), to supply piped natural gas to domestic and industrial consumers and compressed natural gas to automobile consumers in Pune.

The pipeline is likely to be commissioned by June 2007, a press release said.

This pipeline will be connected to Gail's Dahej-Uran pipeline, which is scheduled to be commissioned by February 2007.

MNGL is planning to set up 29 compressed natural gas stations across the city and plans to supply piped natural gas to about 1,000 domestic consumers in three years. The company is hopeful of commencing CNG supply to automobiles by September 2007.

Pune has been idetified as one of the most polluted cities in the country in terms of vehicular pollution by the Supreme Court.

MNGL is Gail's third JV with BPCL for city gas projects. Other joint ventures being the Central UP Gas Ltd which is implementing gas projects in Kanpur and Bareily and Green Gas Ltd (GGL) which implements similar projects in Lucknow and Agra. Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) is already supplying piped gas and CNG in Delhi and Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) in Mumbai.

GAIL has six JVs, namely, Mahanagar Gas Limited, Indraprastha Gas Limited, Bhagyanagar Gas Limited, Tripura Natural Gas Company Limited, Central UP Gas Limited and Green Gas Limited for implementation of city gas projects in various parts of the country.

Moreover, GAIL is in the process of formation of state wise JVs for implementation of city gas projects in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, along with the oil marketing companies.