Piped gas to one lakh more homes in next one year:Saurabh Patel

Gandhinagar, 12 March 2013

Gujarat is presently supplying piped gas to 11 lakh people in their homes. The government plans to give one lakh more gas connections in Navsari, Surat, Valsad, Rajkot and Surendranagar districts in next one year. Petrochemicals minister Saurabh Patel shared this detail in the Gujarat assembly today.

He said the Gujarat government has planned gas supply for home usage in Bhavnagar, Amreli, Junagadh, Jamnagar and Kutch through pipeline, but central government is not taking decision for last two years and permission has not been granted. When central government’s permission is essential and unavoidable, the pending decision is only hurting the people.

Minister further said that Gujarat government has even completed bidding process as early as in February 2011, but central govt is not granting permission. Gujarat government helps centre in saving Rs 660 crore subsidy through supplying piped cooking gas and CNG, but centre is just not taking decision for last three years.

He further said Gujarat is the only state in India that has two LNG terminals that transport 14.6 MMT gas. In future additional 11.5 MMT gas transportation capacity will be achieved. The state government has a concrete policy on LNG. According to that, if someone wants to build a new terminal, 15-20% capacity will be kept reserved and 11-26% equity will go to the state government. Due to such encouragement, Reliance and other companies are inspired to construct LNG terminal at Jamnagar, Hazira and other places. If central government had planned in advance to provide enough gas, Gujarat could get it and could be saved from shutting down 4000 MW power plants.

Minister further said that even after centre’s partial treatment, GSPC has increased its revenue from Rs 5506 crore in 2008 to Rs 8060 crore at present. Its networth was Rs 2210 crore which is now Rs 5625 crore. It is due to state government’s efforts that Gujarat is called nation’s petro capital, the minister added.