India's 11th city gas bidding round to be launched soon, says Pradhan

The 11th bid round is being planned around a new pipeline being constructed from Angul in Odisha to Mumbai in Maharashtra to ferry natural gas between the east and west coast

India will soon launch a bid round to give out licences for retailing gas in cities to help extend the coverage of environment-friendly fuel to about 500 cities, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

During 2018 and 2019, sector regulator PNGRB gave out licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to household kitchens in 136 geographical areas or GAs. This extended coverage of the city gas network to 406 districts and around 70 per cent of the country's population.

"The 11th city gas distribution (CGD) authorisation round will be launched very soon. PNGRB is preparing for it," he