Chennai is likely to get its first compressed natural gas (CNG) retail station at Koyambedu by November.
Oil industry sources said work was on at 7 or 8 existing fuel outlets that have enough space to support CNG supply. “Nagapattinam will get a CNG station even before Chennai. This will be the State’s first outlet. The work has been completed there. We are waiting for some permissions, we are likely to take the gas from a pipeline belonging to GAIL,” said a source.
As far as gas supply to the outlets in Chennai is concerned, an agreement has been signed with Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) for the same. At least three private companies have tied up with IOCL for supply of natural gas, which has a liquid natural gas terminal at Ennore.
“Despite the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, some good progress has been made in supply of CNG to vehicles in Chennai and Nagapattinam areas. At present surveys are on in these areas for pipeline supply,” said an industry watcher.
Since the pipelines are yet to be laid in city, the gas would be transported to the outlets in pressurised canisters, said an official.
CNG is a cleaner fuel when compared to other fossil fuels. It is safer and is lighter than air and in the event of a leak would only rise in to the air. It is also at least 30%-40% cheaper than petrol.
An oil industry expert said that Tamil Nadu was very late when it came to providing LNG, an environment-friendly fuel. “There are States where the fuel is available for nearly 10 years. The State did not permit laying of pipelines and the government did not help when it came to land acquisition for pipelines due to which people are paying more for polluting fuels,” he said adding that these CNG outlets would help pave the way for a cleaner State.