Mumbai: CNG price goes up by Rs 6 per kg, piped cooking gas by Rs 4 per unit

MUMBAI: The price of CNG in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) will rise by Rs 6 per kg from Wednesday, pushing it to an all-time high of Rs 86 per kg. The price of piped cooking gas will go up by Rs 4 per unit, also reaching a record level at Rs 52.50 per unit, impacting over 19 lakh households across MMR.
For CNG, this is the eleventh rise in 13 months, with the total increase being over Rs 36 a kg between July last year and August this year.
Mumbai Taximen's Union leader A L Quadros on Tuesday said he will meet transport commissioner Avinash Dhakne and give him an ultimatum that "if the MMRTA does not hike fares for cabs by this week", the union will be compelled to go on a strike. The union had deferred its decision to go on strike on Monday, but Quadros said "the present hike has pushed us to the wall". The cabbies are demanding a minimum taxi fare of Rs 35 for the city, proposing an increase of Rs 10. Officials from the MMRTA said they planned to take a final call on the taxi fare increase soon.
The CNG increase may push up fares for not just autos and taxis but aggregator cabs and school buses too. There are 8,000 school buses in the city, mostly on CNG. BEST, too, operates 2,100 CNG buses and the fares have been kept constant at Rs 5 for 5 km.
An official from Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) said, "In order to meet the shortfall in domestic gas allocation, MGL is sourcing additional market-priced natural gas to cater to the increasing requirement of CNG and domestic PNG (piped natural gas) segments. There is also a rise in domestic gas price as well as increase in foreign exchange rates, which have impacted MGL's input gas costs and therefore the hikes."