21 Bids For License To Retail CNG To Automobiles And Piped Cooking Gas To Households In Five Geographical Areas

Seven companies have put in 21 bids for licence to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in five areas in states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, oil regulator PNGRB said.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had offered five Geographical Areas (GAs), spread over 27 districts in five states, in the 11A city gas distribution (CGD) bid round.

Bids for the five GAs were received on April 6, PNGRB said in a statement. "21 bids have been received from 7 bidders with no single bid in any GA."

It, however, did not identify the bidders.

A sixth GA of Yanam in Puducherry has been added to the bid round and bids for this area are due on May 10, it added.

The five GAs offered in the 11A bid round include Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Siddharth Nagar and Maharajganj districts of Uttar Pradesh rolled into one GA.

Banka in Bihar, and Dumka, Godda and Sahibganj districts of Jharkhand have been clubbed into one GA.

In West Bengal, Birbhum, Murishdabad, Malda and Dakshin Dinajpur districts have been clubbed into one GA.

Chhattisgarh's Koriya, Surajpur, Balrampur and Surguja districts have been clubbed into one GA, while Kondagaon, Bastar, Sukma, Narayanpur, Bijapur and Dantewada into another.

"Upon finalization of bids under this bidding round, approximately 88 per cent of the country's area would be authorized for development of CGD Network to provide access to natural gas to approximately 98 per cent of the country's population," PNGRB added.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without any modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)