The move for a green public transportation in Bengaluru has inched forward with the national natural gas distributor GAIL Gas formally calling for land to set up CNG (compressed natural gas) stations in four locations.
The depots will store and supply CNG to city buses run by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) – and in the long run, to smaller and private vehicles too.
GAIL Gas plans to buy land measuring 600-2,400 sq m or lease it for at least 25 years from private owners, according to the invitation to land owners.
It plans to locate the depots around the city and along the Outer Ring Road in the Hebbal-Beggars Colony-Singasandra belt; along Tumakuru Road from Yeswantpur to Dobbespet; Old Madras Road stretching from Whitefield to Hoskote; at Hosur Road between Singasandra and Bommasandra.
People familiar with the CNG plan said over the next five years GAIL Gas plans to have over 50 fuel depots. This includes Doddaballapur, Devanahalli, Hoskote and Anekal. The belt is part of an ambitious pan-India natural gas grid. The gas comes to Bengaluru from Dabhol in Maharashtra via a 1,000 km-long pipeline laid by the central public sector company GAIL.
After competitive bidding, the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board in February authorised GAIL’s subsidiary GAIL Gas to distribute natural gas to Bengaluru Rural & Urban geographies for two purposes – for city buses and other vehicles, and for piped gas to homes.
It has started work on the project even as a venture with the Karnataka State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation is in the offing.
Piped cooking gas
Sources said under the second project, the cooking gas pipeline route would run through the Outer Ring Road starting from Jayanagar in the south up to Beggars Colony. It would touch residential clusters in HSR Layout in the South-East, BEL Colony in the North, Jindal Colony and Peenya on Tumakuru Road in the West, and cover around 5,000 homes in the first year. Pipelines are being laid in certain pockets and the plan, they said, would take off once various permissions come in from the Bangalore Development Authority, the BBMP and the BMTC.
It will to set up
CNG stations in
four locations
