Torrent Gas, City Gas Distribution (CGD) arm of ₹21,000 crore Torrent Group, has proposed to invest ₹5,000 crore in Tamil Nadu over the next five years to in order to sell compressed natural gas and to provide piped natural gas to Chennai’s residents.

The company, which will establish and operate CGD (city gas distribution) network and provide CNG and PNG in 3 districts – Chennai, Thiruvallur and Nagapattinam, — has now set up 25 CNG stations in Chennai and Tiruvallur Districts and one city gate station or mother station. These were launched by the Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday.

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With this development, Chennai is now on the natural gas map of India. This was the only metro that was not part of it so far. However, the new CNG stations have actually come at the right time as fossil fuel prices have shot up significantly in the recent time. There are only 12 CNG stations in Tamil Nadu.

“Our plan is to set up 50 CNG stations by this September and 100 stations by June 2022. Our objective is to commission 250 stations by March 2024. We intend to make CNG widely available in Tamil Nadu,” said Jinal Mehta, Director, Torrent Gas.

‘Economical pricing’

The company will sell CNG for ₹51.35/kg in Chennai and Tiruvallur. “This is the second lowest CNG price in the country after the Delhi-NCR region. At this price, CNG as a fuel will help customers in Chennai save up to 66 per cent vis-a-vis petrol, 61 per cent vis-à-vis diesel and 42 per cent vis-à-vis Auto LPG. CNG prices are also much more stable as compared to petrol and diesel,” he added.

Also, the company has already commenced works for laying steel and PE pipelines to provide piped natural gas to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers in the city.

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“We have already identified some clusters for these segments to start with and we hope to start the supply of PNG in the next 6-9 months. We will make it available across all localities and this will be made available to apartment complexes and individual houses. Within the next one year, we are looking at 70,000-80,000 consumers in Chennai,” said Mehta.

The company said the proposed investment of ₹5,000 crore, which is part of Torrent Gas’s ₹10,000 crore spend for the next 5 years across the country, will generate direct and indirect job opportunities for about 5,000 people in Tamil Nadu.

In addition to creating awareness about the benefits of CNG as a fuel, the company has also tied up with vehicle OEMs. Petrol cars can also be converted to CNG by fitting with CNG kits from government approved retrofitters.

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