25 Old Goa households switch over to piped natural gas

NIRGOSH GAUDE | NT

Ponda

There is light at the end of the tunnel for the much-delayed piped natural gas project: 25 households in the Manglam Casa Amora Society at Old Goa have received the honours of getting on to the piped gas in their kitchens recently.   

Ponda residents missed the opportunity to get the privilege of being the first recipients of the piped gas, as the setting up of the district regulator system in the town has been bogged down by delays.

Chief executive officer of the Goa Natural Gas Pvt Ltd Ajay Kumar Jindal said that although actual commissioning of the project has been delayed in the state, 25 households in the Manglam Casa Amora Society at Old Goa have already started using the piped natural gas through ‘cascade filling system’.

“The district regulator system required to distribute the gas to the households was ready in Old Goa. Hence the GNG decided to supply the natural gas through ‘cascade

filling system’ as an alternative arrangement,” Jindal explained.

These 25 connections are like ‘testing connections’ given at nominal charges, and major household distribution will commence from Ponda by January 2020.

GNC officers cited several reasons for the holdup in the distribution of piped gas in Ponda, including the delays in the setting up of the district regulator system, the city gate station at Marcaim and the pipeline laying.

Nevertheless, by January 2020, around 1,000 households in the Ponda municipal limits will get piped gas connections.

“Although works on the city gate station and pipeline laying have been taken a long time due to some technical reasons, we have made alternative arrangement to supply piped natural gas to Ponda residents by January 2020. We are waiting for the district regulator system to be in place first,” he explained.

A total of 1,000 households in Ponda have paid the Rs 500 registration fee. The GNG officials will soon approach the households for installing the GI gas meter on the payment of security (refundable) deposit of Rs 5,000.

It must be noted here that some 10-12 industrial units in the Marcaim industrial estate are ready to switch over to the piped gas, and the industrial units from the Kundaim industrial estate are too being persuaded for the switchover.