Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group has won licences to retail gas in 21 cities. State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s unit and Torrent Gas emerged as the other big winners in the latest city gas distribution bid round.
Adani Gas won rights to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households and industries in 13 cities on its own and another nine, including Allahabad, in joint venture with state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), according to results of 78 out of the 86 cities that were bid out in the country’s biggest city gas distribution (CGD) bid round, media reports said.
According to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), IOC on its own won rights to seven cities, including Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu and Guna in Madhya Pradesh, reported PTI.
Bharat Gas Resources Ltd, a unit of state-owned BPCL, won licence for 11 cities like Amethi and Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, while Torrent Gas Pvt Ltd made nine winning bids that included ones for Alwar in Rajasthan, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and Karaikal in Puducherry, the report said.
State gas utility GAIL’s retailing arm, GAIL Gas, managed rights for four cities, including Dehradun, it added.
Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the firm that retails CNG in the national capital, won city gas rights for Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, the report pointed out.
“As per the commitment made by the various entities in the 78 Geographical Areas (GAs) approved for issuance of Letter of Intent (LoI) in 9th CGD Bidding Round, 15.3 million domestic piped natural gas connections and 3,627 CNG (compressed natural gas) stations for transport sector would be installed largely during a period of 8 years up to September 30, 2026,” PNGRB reportedly said.
When the bid round closed last month, IOC, BPCL and Adani Gas Ltd were the top bidders, the PTI report said.
Of the 86 cities offered for retailing of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in the 9th CGD bid round, IOC bid for 34 cities on its own and another 20 in partnership with Adani Gas Ltd, it added.