Govt plans to increase share of natural gas to 15% in India's fuel basket

Mumbai and Delhi have each crossed the one million mark in piped natural gas connections

This year, Delhi and Mumbai crossed the one million mark in piped natural gas connections. Beyond the two cities, access to the fuel will grow further to 402 districts across 27 states and Union Territories, covering 70 per cent of the country’s population, once the area under the tenth round of bidding is connected. 

This is a long way from 1857, the year of the great revolt against the Raj, when a British joint stock company called Oriental Gas Company started offering piped natural gas supplies in Calcutta (now Kolkata) for commercial and domestic purposes. After that, parts of Gujarat and