All villages to be equipped with PNG connections by next yr: L-G office
All the 383 villages in the national Capital will be provided with piped natural gas supply by March 2025, officials at the L-G office said on Thursday.
Lt Governor V K Saxena, who had envisaged the project, in a recent review meeting was informed by the officials that so far 111 villages have been equipped with PNG connections and another 200 will get it by December 2024, they said.
“By March 2025, all 383 urban villages in Delhi will have PNG supply,” they said.
In June 2023, Saxena directed officers concerned with providing the villages with the best amenities including PNG connections.
The PNG supply would go a long way in transforming the face of the villages in Delhi, officials said.
The Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) officials informed the Lt Governor in the review meeting that 1.79 lakh households will benefit from PNG connections provided to 111 villages so far. The company has received 1.29 lakh applications for the connections out of which 77,513 metres have been installed so far. In these 111 villages, the IGL has laid 672 km of pipeline, they said.
The IGL and other concerned agencies laid pipelines within six months after the project was conceived and the first-ever PNG connection in northwest Delhi’s Qutabgarh village was inaugurated by the Lt Governor in December 2023.
This was also the first venture of IGL in Delhi’s rural areas, which was to date confined to the selected urban residential colonies only. Shortly after this, in March 2024, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated PNG connections in 41 urban villages, officials at the L-G office said.
Saxena directed the agencies concerned — the MCD, PWD, DDA and NDMC — to accord top priority to PNG supply and ensure that all requisite permissions for laying pipelines and other formalities are completed in a maximum of 30 days, they said.
The Lt Governor said the PNG connection in Delhi’s villages is a small but valuable contribution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of providing every household with clean and green energy for cooking.
He emphasised that the initiative will also save the villagers from the hassle of getting LPG cylinders refilled and result in savings of money and energy.