The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan today laid the foundation stone for the first 50 LNG fueling stations across the golden quadrilateral and major national highways.

 

These fifty LNG stations will be set up and commissioned in partnership by the country's oil & gas majors such as IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL, PLL, Gujarat Gas and its joint venture companies and subsidiaries. Out of these 50 LNG stations, IOCL will set up 20 LNG stations, while BPCL and HPCL will set up 11 LNG stations each. These 50 LNG stations are being put up at the nation’s Golden Quadrilateral and major national highways where LNG is to be made available for heavy vehicles and buses.

 

The government has identified LNG as a transport fuel considering the potential of manifold benefits in terms of reducing vehicular pollution, saving in terms of import bill of the country and wide ranging benefits that may accrue to fleet operators, vehicle manufacturers and other entities in the gas sector.

 

He said that LNG is going to be the fuel of the future for transport and in this regard, retrofitting of the vehicles as well as development by original equipment manufacturers is being undertaken. The minister said that LNG is almost 40% cheaper than diesel but also causes very less pollution. 

 

He said that the government will set up LNG stations at the distance of 200-300 km on golden quadrilateral and within 3 years, we will have 1,000 LNG stations on all major roads, industrial hubs and mining areas. He expressed confidence that 10% of the trucks will adopt LNG as fuel.