By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Urban areas in as many as 20 districts in the State are all set to get Piped Natural Gas (PNG), soon. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) on Tuesday announced that bids would be finalised in October for laying of pipelines to supply PNG in the 20 identified districts of Telangana State.

The 20 districts are - Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam, Jagtial, Jangaon, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Peddapalli, Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Mahabubabad, Warangal (Rural), Warangal (Urban), Medak, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Medchal, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri and Vikarabad. Tenders will be finalised by October.

Likewise, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts in Andhra Pradesh too have been selected for supplying piped natural gas by the board.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday launched a road show for ninth bid round for City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks across the country in New Delhi. Pradhan said this was the largest ever round which covers 20 states and 2 Union Territories of the country.

He announced that through the 9th bidding round, his ministry was rolling out City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks in another 86 geographical areas covering 174 districts across the country, which include 20 districts in Telangana and three districts in AP. “After this round, India will have CGD coverage in nearly 50% of the total 640 districts in the country,” he stated. Dharmendra Pradhan said the NDA government at the Centre had doubled the coverage of CGD networks to 94 geographical areas spread across 130 districts in the past four years. “Natural gas is the fuel for the future and the need is to increase share of gas in India’s primary energy basket from current 6.5% to 15%. Till 2014, our country had City Gas networks in just 47 geographical areas across 73 districts,” he said.

According to him, the bid process has been rationalised and investor-friendly parameters evolved to attract serious bidders, encourage competition and unreasonable parameters like amount of bank guarantee determining the winner have been removed. He said partnership with State governments is needed and they should cooperate.