Vadodara: Amid restrictions on commercial LPG cylinders, villages in Anand district are turning to an alternative fuel through a large bio-CNG cluster project. The project includes 10 plants across nearly 100 villages and is expected to provide a cheaper and reliable substitute for LPG while reducing dependence on imported fuel.

Once operational, the cluster will produce about 10 metric tonnes of bio-CNG per day, equal to nearly 521 commercial or 715 domestic LPG cylinders. The fuel will be supplied to schools, hostels, temples, hotels and highway eateries facing cylinder shortages. The project will begin from Davol village in Borsad taluka and extend up to Pandoli in Petlad, covering a 31-km belt.

Sanjay Patel, CEO of S P Ecofuel, said bio-CNG will be around 20% cheaper than LPG, and the cluster will require an investment of about ₹60 crore. The plants will convert cattle dung, food waste and agricultural biomass into clean fuel, providing extra income to farmers.

Around 500 metric tonnes of waste per day will be collected from nearly 100 villages through women-led farmer producer organisations (FPOs). A pilot project at BAPS Gaushala in Dakor is already producing bio-CNG used to cook meals for more than 1,000 devotees daily. The cluster will generate about 20,000 cubic metres of biogas per day, which will be refined into 10 MT of bio-CNG. Napier grass will also be used as feedstock.

The Davol plant, costing about ₹4 crore, is expected to start by May. Many households in nearby villages already use biogas under NDDB, Gobardhan and Swachh Bharat schemes. DeshGujarat