CNG supply line lies unused

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 1

Infrastructure worth several crores of rupees of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) for supplying compressed natural gas (CNG) to the state is lying useless because companies who were allotted the work of providing gas to users from the supply line in 2015 have not done so till date.

Companies which were to lay the “last mile connectivity” of the gas from the GAIL supply line have failed to deliver. Besides industry, the state is waiting for the CNG supply for its vehicles and even use at homes.

Official communication pointed out that the work for gas supply to the Jalandhar and Ludhiana areas was awarded to Jay Madhok in 2015. The work for supply to the Mandi Gobindgarh area was allotted to IRM Energy Private Limited. Except for the direct supply lines to the National Fertilisers Limited plants at Nangal and Bathinda, CNG is not being supplied anywhere in the state.

The issue has cropped up fresh in context of different communications from the office of Punjab Pollution Control Board Chairman Kahan Singh Pannu to the Secretary, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, seeking “guidelines to GAIL to start connecting industry in Ludhiana and Jalandhar without further delay so that cleaner fuel options are made available to the industry at the earliest”.

The pipeline was laid after the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had designated the Mandi Gobindagrh-Khanna region as the critically polluted area.

In a separate communication, Pannu has sought the regulatory board to “either expand the operations of GAIL from Fatehgarh Sahib till Khanna or direct GAIL to develop local gas network for the Khanna industrial cluster at a war footing. An early action in this regard will go a long way in improving the air quality of the Mandi Gobindgarh-Khanna cluster”.

Secretary of the regulatory board Vandana Sharma could not be contacted for comments, despite repeated efforts.

The Punjab Chapter of the Steel Furnace Association of India in a separate communication to the member of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has pointed out that the work for the city gas distribution network in Ludhiana was awarded to a company four-five years back. “Till date neither the party approached us (industry) nor can we see any activity on ground,” it wrote.

The association wrote that “the Supreme Court has banned sale and use of furnace oil and pet coke in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP. The furnace oil has high sulphur content which is harmful for human beings. There is an immediate need to switch over to eco-friendly cleaner fuel (natural gas) for industrial operations”.