The Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan dedicated the nation to GAIL group’s 201 CNG stations across the country. 

Pradhan also inaugurated the commencement of PNG supply in Jhansi and Mobile Refueling Units (MRUs) for refueling vehicles at Raigad. The MRUs inaugurated belong to Indraprastha Gas Limited and Mahanagar Gas Limited. 

Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said, "Till now, CNG stations and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) were belonging to metro cities and with the government efforts these are now reaching cities and towns across the country. The Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to the cause of climate change mitigation and his efforts have given the world leadership and enhanced India’s standing in the world." 

He also spoke about the PM’s efforts towards enhancing ease of living for citizens and said that today’s inauguration is another step towards this twin objective of a greener future and enhancing ease of living for people. 

Asserting that the future of fuel retail is mobile, he spoke about various measures to give boost to this ecosystem including setting up a mobile refilling CNG facility. 

Pradhan said that India has committed to achieve 15% share of natural gas in the primary energy mix by 2030 for a more sustainable energy use which will help reduce environmental pollution, fulfill India’s commitment to COP-21. 

Greater use of natural gas will reduce dependence on fossil fuel and consequently reduce import bill and import dependence added Pradhan. 

Pradhan said that the Ministry is pushing for greater adoption and utilisation of cleaner and greener fuel including Hydrogen, CBG, Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) and LNG. 

Pradhan said that the CGD sector has emerged as a major sector for natural gas consumption. The demand is only going to increase as more GAs become operational. He exhorted the CGD entities to keep working hard to reach 10,000 CNG stations and 5 crore PNG connections in the coming 7-8 years. 

Pradhan emphasized that the aim of the government was to move towards the concept of energy retailer where all different transport fuels – Hydrogen, diesel, petrol, CNG/CBG, LNG or EV batteries swapping facility shall be available at a single point.