Gail India chairman B.C. Tripathi on Monday announced setting up of a “Green Corridor’’ comprising a natural gas highway from Jalandhar to Bangalore aimed at providing opportunities to inland transportation to operate on natural gas by extending reach of CNG beyond cities.
Talking to newsmen at the pre-launch of ANGVA-2013, a three-day International Conference and exhibition, Mr. Tripathi said this corridor will pass through and benefit eight States - Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.
The proposed Green Corridor of natural gas pipeline will add to the already 13,000 Km long gas pipeline infrastructure at present. However, the pipeline density is yet to cover vast stretches of the country leaving a significant market segment out of prospectively for the natural gas market. It was felt that the refuelling infrastructure needs significant investments to progressively increase the spread of natural gas as a fuel of choice in the transport sector.
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Mr. Tripathi said the Green Corridor aims to establish the “Natural Gas Highway’’ in the country. The refuelling infrastructure across the green highway will encourage long haul transporters in adopting natural gas due to increased availability of gas stations. The gas pipelines from right from Bangalore to Jalandhar/Ludhiana will provide an opportunity to transform inland transportation to operate on natural gas vehicles and expand the reach of CNG beyond cities.
He said operational LNG re-gasification terminals at Hazira, Dahej, Dabhol and Kochi along with operational transportation pipeline network is paving way to fuel the natural gas vehicles through a pool of domestic and RLNG mix. Emphasis will be required by the gas companies to create the CNG refuelling infrastructure in a coordinated manner to provide CNG outlets along the highways while auto- manufactures are required to come forward with long haul natural gas to ply along highways.